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THE PLOT AGAINST 
MEXICO 




LA OFRENDA 

By Saturnino Herran, 1887-1918 



THE PLOT AGAINST 
MEXICO 



BY 

L. J. DE BEKKER 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

JOHN FARWELL MOORS 

Senior Member, Moors & Cabot, Bankers 




NEW YORK 

ALFRED • A . KNOPF 

1919 



COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY 
L. J. DE BEKKER 



F1I34 
.J} 15 



UtC 17 1919 



PRINTED IN THK UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



©CI.A561003 



-^df^ 



DEDICATION 

This book is dedicated to the author's colleagues in the 
Committee on Mexico of the League of Free Na- 
tions Association, in warm appreciation of 
their efforts to prevent an armed 
intervention in Mexico: 

H. A. Atkinson Paul Kennaday 

Joseph P. Chamberlain Mrs. Edith Shatto King 

Royal J. Davis Frederick Lynch 

Carlton J. H. Hayes John F. Moors 

S. G. Inman J. W. Slaughter 

Paul U. Kellogg G. B. Winton 

Stanley R. Yarnall 

And 

James G. McDonald, 

Chairman of the Committee and 

of the Association. 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

This is a fighting book. Its purpose is to ex- 
pose and defeat the effort of a handful of pluto- 
cratic Americans to involve the United States in 
war with Mexico under pretext of an intervention, 
in order that our neighbour to the south may be 
permanently occupied, and that they may be free 
to exploit the enormous natural wealth of the 
Mexicans in petroleum, minerals and agricultural 
lands, to their own exclusive advantage. 

In the hope of preventing publication of the 
series of articles in The Nation from which the 
book takes its title, a lawyer and the chief press 
agent of the interventionists represented to the edi- 
tor of that journal that "The Plot Against Mexico" 
had no existence in fact, being the product of the 
overheated imagination of a gentleman whose ar- 
tistic temperament dimmed his appreciation of 
facts. They meant me, but they really hit the 
President of the United States. 

I did not discover or invent a Plot Against 
Mexico. If any one invented it, the honour must 
be ascribed to Woodrow Wilson. The following 
statement, given out at the White House, and never 
denied, was sent out from Washington March 25, 



THE AUTHORS PREFACE 



1916, by the Associated Press and published 
throughout the world: 

"Convinced that powerful influences are at work 
to force an intervention in Mexico, Administration 
officials were today considering just what steps 
shall be taken to bring the agitation to an end. . . . 
President Wilson is said to be determined to stop 
the circulation of inflammatory rumours, and to 
take legal steps if necessary." 

I agree with Mr. Wilson's views as expressed in 
his address to Congress, August 27, 1915, when 
he said: 

"We shall triumph as Mexico's friends sooner 
than we could triumph as her enemies, and how 
much more handsomely, with how much higher and 
finer satisfaction of conscience and of honour!" 

And he was right beyond a doubt in believing in 
1916 that powerful influences were at work to force 
an intervention in Mexico. These influences are 
more powerful in 1919 than they were in 1916. 
I hold no brief for the existing Government of 
Mexico, nor for any individual or corporation hav- 
ing interests there. My only purpose is to lay the 
truth before the great body of American citizens in 
order that they may not be led into an unjust war 
by a few score of greedy capitalistic adventurers. 

L. J. DE B. 

New York City, Oct. 15, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

Shall We Intervene in Mexico? Introduction 

by John Farwell Moors 1 

One: The Plot Against Mexico 21 
Two: Three Solutions for Our Mexican 

Problem 50 
Three: An Interview with President Carranza 68 

Four: A Presidential Progress 82 

Five: Mexico's Next President 97 

Six: By Sea to Mexico 109 

Seven: Mexico City Prospers 116 

Eight: Journalism Past and Present 126 

Nine: Mexico's National School of Art 133 

Ten: A Study in Melomania 142 

Eleven: Bandits and Bolsheviki 147 

Twelve: Is Mexico Pro-German? 156 

Thirteen: The Demon as Licor Divino 166 

Fourteen: Trade and Commercial Credits 174 

Fifteen: Finance and the Banks 180 

Sixteen: Railways and Nationalization 190 

Seventeen: Petroleum and Politics 202 

Eighteen: The Oil Men's Version 213 

Nineteen: Mexico's Future Bright 226 

appendices 

I. President Carranza's Message 235 
II. Proof of the Plot; Being a Postscript by 

the Author 273 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

La Ofrenda, by Saturnino Herran, 1887-1918 

Frontispiece 

rACINQ 
PAQK 

Self Portraiture, by German Gedovius, professor 

in the Nacional Academy 44 

Isabel de Portugal, by Pelegrin Clave, 1872-1890 70 

The Valley of Mexico, by Jose M. Velasco 94 

San Jeronimo, by J. Gutierrez 134 

Othello, by Gonzales Pineda 138 

The Senate of Tlaxcala, by Rodrigo Gutierrez 178 

Courtyard of an Old House, by Jimenez 230 



SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO? 
By John Farwell Moors 

Senior Member, Moors & Cabot, Bankers. 

Our national policy or, as it seemed to many 
people, lack of policy in Mexico was assumed in 
1916 to be altogether indefensible. .It was this 
even more than our attitude toward the European 
war which apparently justified Mr. Hughes in leav- 
ing the Supreme Court and becoming a candidate 
for the Presidency. He called our efforts, such as 
they were, to bring order out of chaos in Mexico 
"a confused chapter of blunders." He also said: 
"We have suffered incalculably from the weak and 
vacillating course which has been taken. We 
utterly failed to discharge our plain duty to our own 
citizens." Now, three years later, this is more than 
ever the settled opinion of thousands of Americans, 
who have summed up our Mexican policy derisively 
in two words: "watchful waiting." These thou- 
sands of Americans gave little heed in 1916 to the 
President's insistance that, serious as was our con- 
cern for our own citizens in Mexico, we owed it to 
the Mexicans themselves not to interfere unduly in 
their struggle for liberty after intolerable suffering 

[1] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

under the fair exterior of the dictatorship of Por- 
firio Diaz. Today Mexico is still made to appear 
a land of contending bandits. Dr. Paul Bernado 
Altendorf, said to have lived in Mexico since 1914, 
sums up this common point of view thus: "Mexico 
is nothing more than an agglomeration of anarchist 
gangs who kill and plunder with no restraint but 
their own caprices." Similar views were given by 
Mr. William Gates in the World's Work for Feb- 
ruary, March, April and May of this year. Senator 
Fall of New Mexico has been promulgating them for 
years. Republican Floor Leader Mondell, Repre- 
sentative Hudspeth from Texas, Representative 
Gould from New York have done their best to 
emphasize them. When Mr. Hudspeth said: 
"The time has come when this Government should 
say to Carranza: 'You have not fulfilled your 
obligations in the protection of American lives, so 
we withdraw recognition of you and will put troops 
in Mexico to protect American lives till order is 
restored,' " Congress applauded. 

On the other hand, on February 6 last, our 
Ambassador to Mexico, Mr. Henry P. Fletcher 
stated publicly: "President Carranza has accom- 
plished great work in preparing for development 
and reconstruction, and in reorganizing the public 
service, and has made such headway that the various 
bandit leaders are now without real influence and 
are operating in small bands. Carranza is the real 

[2] 



SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO? 

power in Mexico." On January 7 the Boston News 
Bureau quoted L. H. Coley, manager in Mexico for 
the Ingersoll-Rand Corporation, as follows: 
"There is some interference from lawless elements 
in the Western districts, but not nearly so bad as 
for the last few years. Nearly all the mines are 
being worked, especially those owned by large for- 
eign corporations." On February 21, Mr. Elmer 
R. Jones, president of Wells Fargo and Co. in 
Mexico, which formerly operated on 14,000 miles 
of Mexican railroads, gave an equally optimistic 
view after a two and a half months' trip through 
Mexico. In April, Mr. B. Preston Clark, highly 
respected in this city, speaking of the U. S. Smelt- 
ing, Refining and Mining Co., made the following 
impressive statement to the Episcopal Church Con- 
gress in New York: 

"It has been my privilege to be connected with 
a mining company operating in Mexico. About 
ten year§ ago we went there. We have tried to 
treat the Mexicans as human beings. We told 
them that we did not believe the current legend 
than no Mexican was worth more than two pesos 
a day, that with us, if a man did the work, he 
would fare just the same, whether he was American 
or Mexican, that in all ways we should respect 
them and their wives and families as we would 
our own. We went to it as a human proposition. 
The effect was prodigious. 

[3] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

"This attitude brought out the best there was 
in those people and the best there was in us. For 
eight and a half years of revolution, under those 
Southern stars, the roar of our mills has never 
stopped. Today 7,000 men operate them, of whom 
57 only are Americans (less than 1%). 

"Mexicans hold important positions all along 
the line. I could spend an evening telling you 
that story. How we have fed them, fought typhus 
and influenza with them, and how they have done 
their part like men. Two things I must say. 
After Vera Cruz we insisted that all our Americans 
leave Mexico. The properties were left in abso- 
lute charge of Mexicans for eight months. They 
stole nothing; they allowed no one else to steal 
anything; they operated the plants successfully, 
and returned them to us in as good condition as 
when our Americans came out. 

"On another occasion $250,000 in bullion was 
stolen from the company. Our 6,000 miners of 
their own motion, when they heard of this, saw to 
it that that bullion was returned within 24 hours, 
and within 48 hours it was on a Ward liner bound 
for Liverpool. Do you wonder that I trust them?" 

On May 4 an editorial, a column long, in the 
New York Times, entitled "A Visit to Mexico," 
said: "Darkest Mexico was penetrated on March 
29 from Laredo by a train of Pullman cars carry- 
ing fifty members of the San Antonio Chamber of 

[4] 



SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO? 

Commerce and bound for the principal cities of 
the country so long ravaged by revolutionary bands. 
When the San Antonians returned to American soil, 
Mexico was no longer dark to them. It was not a 
disturbed and distressed country as they saw it. 
The visiting merchants had a halcyon time, travel- 
ling 3,000 miles and enjoying all the comforts of 
home. The impression that Mexico had been dev- 
astated by revolution the Americans found to be 
a grotesque exaggeration." 

Production, exports and the earnings of foreign 
companies with property in Mexico all tend to con- 
firm these many reports of comparatively stable 
conditions there and of a more and more successful 
outcome of the Revolution. 

How is it then that in the general news columns 
conditions in Mexico are now almost daily painted 
as direful? 

A clue to the mystery may perhaps be found in 
the potential riches of Mexico, particularly in the 
expanding production of oil. Mexico is said to be 
capable of producing 50% of the whole oil supply 
of the world and oil is said to be the world's most 
valuable product. The Carranza Government has 
sought by law to secure ownership, not only of all 
future sub-soil rights but until recently of retro- 
active rights. Last October, Mr. Frederick R. 
Kellogg, general counsel for the Mexican Petroleum 
Co., stated very clearly {New York Nation, Oct. 5, 

[5] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

1918) the foreign companies' side of the case. 
"The oil companies," said he, "have opposed, and 
will oppose to the end, the attacks to which they are 
being subjected." The stock market showed its 
confidence in such opposition, for at the time of Mr. 
Kellogg's pessimistic article, Mexican Petroleum 
X stock was almost doubling in market value. 

^ On January 21, 1919, a financial news sheet an- 
nounced modestly the formation of the "National 
Association for the Protection of American Rights 
in Mexico." The leading interests in this Associa- 
tion were then reported to be the Rockefeller Cos., 
American Smelting and Refining Co., Anaconda 
Co., and Mexican Petroleum Co. This association 
is now said to have a press bureau in most com- 
petent hands at 347 Fifth Avenue, New York, and 
others elsewhere. Its name appears with great 
frequency in the press, notably in connection with 
the attacks in Mexico on unknown American 

V citizens, in whom it purports to take a deep interest. 
The large corporations which organized it are 
usually no longer mentioned, but the bureau chief 
has testified that he receives a salary of $20,000. 
On February 23 announcement was made by one 
of the leading banking houses in New York of the 
formation of an international committee of twenty 
bankers, ten from the United States and five each 
from England and France "for the purpose of pro- 
tecting the holders of securities of the Mexican Re- 

[6] 



SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO? 

public," etc., "with a view to such positive action 
as may be taken whenever circumstances permit." 

Since then the dark pictures of Mexico have 
grown in number till now they appear almost daily. 

An extraordinary broadside appeared giving the 
prophetic news that there would be a revolution in 
Mexico in June. Other extraordinary broadsides 
followed featuring Felix Diaz, who, with a redoubt- 
able general, named Blanquet, has assembled, as 
it were over night, an army of 40,000 men and was 
marching on Mexico City. This movement, what- 
ever it was in reality, collapsed; Blanquet was 
killed ; Diaz became a fugitive. 

Next, Zapata was made to appear the hopeful 
patriot of Mexico. But on March 15 he was said 
to be fleeing to the mountains and on April 11 he, 
too, was reported killed. 

In May a triumphant march by Villa through 
Chihuahua had the front pages. He captured 
Parral; he advanced on Juarez; he had become 
miraculously transformed not only in strength but 
character. The New York Sun suddenly ab- 
solved him from responsibility for the Columbus 
massacre. The Washington correspondent of the 
Boston Evening Transcript, whose earlier castiga- 
tions of Villa would fill a volume, had on May 3 
over a column extolling him. Villa had been 
"grossly misrepresented," his military operations 
were being conducted "regularly and under a well- 

[7] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

devised plan and not according to the methods of 
the banditti"; Gen. Angeles, Villa's "Provisional 
President of Mexico," was "chief of staff and one 
of the best soldiers in Mexico"; his sentries 
throughout Parral were "a guaranty of life, liberty 
and property"; he "requisitioned" $50,000 from 
Spanish residents, "not for the equipment of his 
army, but for ameliorating conditions in Parral"; 
he was no longer the "drunken Villa" but was re- 
garded by "his American friends" (whoever they 
were) as "one of the most uncompromising pro- 
hibitionists on the continent"; he "does not even 
smoke." The lower classes under rebel control 
were "more prosperous and contented than ever 
before." The article ends prophetically thus: 
"Villa is only one of several other local chieftains 
who stand ready to make serious trouble for the 
Carranza Government, when the time comes." 

Villa, however, when he reached Juarez, was 
driven by United States troops perpendicularly 
d9wn to his former level of unspeakable bandit. 
The Provisional President of Mexico disappeared. 
When June came there were left only the wrecks 
of three well-advertised revolutions and consider- 
able mortality. The Carranza Government seemed 
to be more firmly established than at any previous 
time. 

With the collapse of the revolutions extraor- 
dinary publicity was suddenly given to outrages 

[8] 



SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO? 

on American citizens in Mexico. On July 8 the 
National Association for the Protection of Ameri- 
can Rights in Mexico itself announced that the 
Executive Committee had decided "to use its utmost 
endeavours" to make these outrages "an interna- 
tional issue." The next day the New York Times, 
on "unusually well informed authority," told us 
that President Wilson would soon appear before 
Congress "and make an address on the Mexican 
problem, dealing with the matter along the lines 
of the McKinley message to Congress, which led to 
intervention with Cuba." On July 20 the overt act 
needed for intervention seemed almost, if not quite, 
to have taken place. "Outrage on American 
Sailors" said great headlines. "This is one of the 
gravest of the many grave incidents which have been 
staged in Mexico within recent months," said Act- 
ing Secretary of State Phillips. "Every sensible 
American knows the course we should adopt to 
stop these outrages. We ought to kill about 2,000 
Mexicans," said Senator Ashurst of Arizona. 
Senator Fall was described as "one who gave free 
expression to his feelings." The losses, when 
officially reported, proved, however, to be only a 
watch, a pair of shoes and "some money"; the 
sailors had gone, contrary to orders, into bandit 
country; and the Mexican authorities were said to 
be most friendly and zealous to capture the wrong- 
doers. That indiscreet barometer of Wall Street 

[9] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

sentiment, Mexican Petroleum stock, had risen on 
what was called the "tension" caused by this in- 
cident. 

In July the Committee on Rules of the House of 
Representatives proceeded With the agitation. 
Ambassador Fletcher, the first witness, continued 
to speak well of the Carranza Government and said 
that Carranza's authority was now fairly well 
established over most of Mexico. He stated that 
he had records of 217 Americans killed in Mexico 
in eight years, "391," the National Association 
for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico 
was quick to assert. 

The principal other witness before the Committee 
was William Gates, author of the articles last spring 
in the World's Work, who interested the Committee 
so much that it called him back for more testimony. 
Gates was described as an "archaeologist." The 
New York Sun said he came from Baltimore, the 
World and the Tribune that he came from Cali- 
fornia, the Times that he came from Cleveland. 
Gates testified that most of the bandits were Car- 
ranza men, and that most Mexicans would say, if 
they should hear of financial and possible military 
assistance against Carranza: "Thank God, you 
have redeemed belief in America." 

Then, however, there was another collapse. 
David Lawrence pointed out in the New York 
Evening Post that Gates had written to H. L. Hall, 
[10] 



SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO? 

Santa Monica, California, letters showing himself 
to be a "bridge" between the various rebel elements 
in Mexico, to have had Zapata's credentials as 
persona grata with all the revolutionaries, and to 
have had letters from Felix Diaz showing him "one 
of us." One letter says: "I write you this, as you 
represent Zapata, am now awaiting the return of the 
people from Paris, for things to climax. When 
they do I am ready. I hope we shall succeed." 
He cautiously added: "Of what is actually going 
on of real moment it is impossible to write as you 
can judge." Gates has publicly admitted these 
letters, but denies their obvious implication. 

The appeals for justice from the Mexican Gov- 
ernment have been given scanty heed by the people 
of the United States. On February 26, three days 
after the formation of the committee of twenty 
bankers, a prominent member of the Mexican Gov- 
ernment registered a caveat. Said he : "If the new 
committee considers that the situation in Mexico is 
not as it was ten years ago, we can expect good re- 
sults. But if the same error is made as by many 
who are interested in our affairs who wish Mexico 
to return to the basis of ten years ago, we can only 
expect the creation of new difficulties." 

On July 26 the Mexican Ambassador at Washing- 
ton addressed the people of the United States telling 
of the comparatively stable government now in 
Mexico. He compared the outrages there with 

[11] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

those here after our Civil War. He stated that 
Mexico was paying two-thirds of its income to chase 
bandits. He pointed to the balance sheets of the 
big companies operating in Mexico as evidence of 
their prosperity. 

On August 2 President Carranza said: "The 
petroleum companies have set out to engender ill- 
feeling between Mexico and the United States. 
They are doing this through the medium of some 
sections of the American press which are distorting 
facts to suit their own ends. Mexico is not opposed 
to the petroleum companies or to any other foreign 
investors. We merely require that, if such com- 
panies are to operate in the Republic, they abide by 
our laws." 

From Mexico has come the charge that Senator 
Fall was behind a letter f rorn Col. Charles F. Hunt 
to Villa, offering Villa a visit from Senator Fall and 
others, for the purpose of helping to push the cam- 
paign against the Mexican Government. Senator 
Fall replied: "Liars, of course, as usual." But he 
admitted that he had sent the State Department 
copies of the Hunt-Villa correspondence. 
' Warnings have come also from American 
sources. On March 17 the correspondent in 
Mexico City of the New York World wrote: "A 
campaign instigated chiefly by petroleum interests 
is afoot to force the next Republican Congress to 
intervene in Mexico." Early in April the New 

[12] 



SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO? 

York Nation said: "There is reason to believe that 
efforts of serious proportions are being made to 
bring about war between the United States and 
Mexico. Bit by bit the propaganda is being spread 
with ostensible fortuitousness. Leading Canadian 
and American oil men go to Paris. In Paris these 
gentlemen meet with the other oil groups. The 
British Government has taken over large oil in- 
terests and is going into the business. Gen. Blan- 
quet suddenly lands in Mexico and carefully pre- 
pared statements of his enterprise are issued in 
New York. A drive is on and the story of it is 
written plainly in the Blanquet propaganda. 
President Carranza is to be labelled pro-German 
and his regime is to fall into the category of Bol- 
shevism." This point of view is now being in- 
stilled into us. With the collapse of the revolutions 
and of the Gates testimony, there is being placed 
under our eyes propaganda calculated to inflame 
our minds against Carranza by imputing to him pro- 
German activities against this country. Dr. Alten- 
dorf, already mentioned, who claims to have 
worked in Mexico under the guise of a "loyal Ger- 
man," is now making these charges. 

On July 6 the Christian Science Monitor quoted 
John R. Phillips, who it says "has investigated and 
is thoroughly familiar with the whole problem" : — 
"This recrudescence of the propaganda was all 
timed to go off in conjunction with the activities of 
[13] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

various revolutionary leaders in Mexico. But 
these leaders, sent down there and financed by 
American interventionists, were disposed of by the 
Mexican Government forces. Villa's and Angeles' 
elaborately staged and widely heralded operations 
were abortive. Blanquet and Zapata were killed. 
All of this left the propaganda which was to syn- 
chronize on the American side with these bandits, 
high and dry, without excuse for its existence. But 
as the propaganda organs were ready for function- 
ing, they were allowed to go on with their work of 
pouring their poison into the American press in a 
last desperate effort to accomplish their purpose." 
More recently, Mr. L. J. de Bekker, a correspon- 
dent sent to Mexico by the New York Tribune to 
"write the truth about the situation," has given 
first-hand information. Mr. de Bekker was in 
Mexico during February, March and April, 1919. 
He found "peace and prosperity" in the greater 
part of Mexico, controlled by the Mexican Govern- 
ment, but "devastation and anarchy" in the oil 
region, where one Pelaez, "King of the oil fields," 
a bandit, employed by the oil producers, was in 
their interest forcibly defying the Mexican Govern- 
ment. The Tribune did not publish his views. 
When published elsewhere, these views drew on 
July 26 a reply from a body calling itself "The 
Association of Oil Producers in Mexico" and writ- 
[14] 



SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO? 

ing from New York. In this reply the Association 
practically admits the forcible defiance of the 
Mexican Government by the foreign oil producers, 
for it says: " ' King' Pelaez's troops are operating 
in the oil fields only, far from any railroad, for the 
reason that the Government is attempting to con- 
fiscate their oil values." The reply insists that the 
companies are not "voluntarily" assisting Pelaez 
against Carranza, and that Pelaez is in effect a 
blackmailer who would destroy the oil wells if 
tribute were not paid him. Congressman La 
Guardia, though decrying the purposes of the 
Carranza Government, has confirmed in the follow- 
ing statement, the open warfare against that govern- 
ment waged by Pelaez in return for the tribute 
paid him by the oil companies: "The Pelaez faction 
is the best equipped, best uniformed army of all the 
factions. It is about 5,000 armed men under the 
command of Gen. Pelaez. These forces protect 
the oil industries from being robbed by the Car- 
ranza faction. It is supported and paid for by the 
oil companies. I understand that the pay is some- 
thing like $180,000 a month, and that several 
million dollars already have been paid to Pelaez 
for necessary protection." 

Should we like it if the foreign owners of soijie 
of our factories should employ gunmen to kill our 
officials in the enforcement of our income tax law? 
[15] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

Is not the Pelaez situation far more exasperating 
and ominous for Mexico than even this suppositi- 
tious case would be for us? 

So far the United States has not intervened, 
except to drive off Villa and to chase (vainly) the 
bandits who recently captured two American 
aviators. But Senator Lodge has appointed a 
Senate investigating committee which consists of 
Senator Fall, chairman; Senator Smith of Arizona, 
said to be the "conspicuous chum" of Fall, and the 
colleague of Ashurst, quoted above, and Senator 
Brandegee of Connecticut, whose point of view is 
typified by his comment on a recent article by ex- 
President Taft: "I never pay any attention to the 
froth he emits. Every time you throw a cake of 
soap into him, he emits whatever froth President 
Wilson wants him to." A committee could not 
have been appointed more predisposed to find for 
intervention. 

The situation is further complicated by the fact 
that in the Monroe Doctrine are involved obligations 
as well as privileges. England and France have 
enormous interests in Mexico. As the Monroe 
Doctrine precludes them from themselves protecting 
those interests by force, they may be expected to 
turn to us to see that their interests and those of 
their citizens in Mexico do not suffer. We are 
their friends and want to remain their friends. 
"Watchful waiting" may seem as inexplicable to 
[16] 



SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO? 

them now as it seemed to Mr. Hughes in 1916, and 
as it has long seemed to all Jingoes. 

Let us not, however, deceive ourselves. "Prop- 
aganda" means the artificial dissemination of 
news calculated to produce a state of public opinion 
desired by those who disseminate the news. "In- 
tervention" in the case of a strong nation, dealing 
with a weak one, is a euphemism for war. The 
phrase to "clean up" Mexico similarly means war 
upon her. Nine men in ten in the financial dis- 
tricts assume today that we should go to war with 
Mexico. They are doubtless ignorant of the fact 
that in 1848 the United States signed a treaty with 
Mexico agreeing to arbitrate all differences before 
going to war. No American should tolerate mak- 
ing this treaty a "scrap of paper." 

On December 4 last, a typical item in a financial 
column said: "The outlook for companies operat- 
ing in Mexico is believed to be brighter than it has 
been for a long time. The great expansion in the 
American army undoubtedly will exert a salutary 
effect on the obnoxious elements in the Southern 
Republic." With equal candour, on July 15 a cor- 
respondent of t!he New York Times in Coblenz 
wrote that the American army was drawing up 
plans for a Mexican campaign. "The military 
machine," said he, "has begun to do what the 
armies of European nations have long done, that is, 
draft plans of campaign against neighbour nations." 
[17] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

This time our army was to fight "with the most 
modern weapons" with "the 1919 stamp upon 
them." 

Intervention thus conceived is not merely war, 
but aggressive war on the old and, we had assumed, 
discredited European basis, the war of a great na- 
tion on a little one. 

There is food for thought at such a time in the 
views of labour. 

The proceedings in New York, July 10, of the 
Pan-American Federation of Labour, have the fol- 
lowing entry: A resolution introduced by Louis 
N. Morones, representing the Mexican Federation 
of Labour, was adopted, deploring "the campaign 
that for some time has been carried on to provoke 
an armed conflict between the United States and 
Mexico" and urging peaceful settlement of all dif- 
ficulties. Similarly, Samuel Gompers, has said in 
an interview: "To my mind, it would be the gravest 
wrong which could be inflicted upon the people of 
the United States, as well as upon the people of 
Mexico, if the Jingo spirit which now seems to be 
in the course of manufacture should drive us into 
anything like a conflict with the people of Mexico. 
The President, with his associates, has negotiated 
a treaty of peace and in it established the covenant 
for the League of Nations. One of the highest 
purposes is the settlement of international disputes 

[18] 



SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO? 

by peaceful means, and we cannot consistently ad- 
vocate such high principles in our dealings with the 
European nations as provided in the covenant and 
then rush into an armed conflict with Mexico." 

Will not a righteous cry go up from labour that 
it is a capitalist's war, if we now intervene in 
Mexico? Will not another righteous cry go up 
from our new friends in the ABC countries that 
we have justified their former suspicions of us? 
Will not the whole world cynically compare our 
professions with our practice, and look upon us, not 
as leaders toward new and better international 
ideals, but as the nation which failed the world at 
the first test? 

The politicians and the oil producers can easily 
persuade themselves that intervention will increase 
the production of supplies which the world needs. 
They can strike a responsive chord when they urge 
us to suppress outrages in Mexico, even though the 
outrages there may not be more reprehensible than 
they are here. Let us indeed agree with them that 
in Mexico, as elsewhere, we should seek to have 
justice done our interests and all reasonable pro- 
tection granted our citizens. But where in all 
history will there be folly like unto our folly, in- 
famy like unto our infamy, if the propaganda, to 
which we are wanted to give heed, should prove to 
be the bearing of false witness against a helpless 
[19] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

neighbour, trying to struggle to her feet, and should 
deafen our ears to her appeals for mercy, and 
should lead us to sharpen our knives "with the 1919 
stamp upon them" and attack her and ravage her 
lands and take to ourselves her riches? 



I 



[20] 



CHAPTER ONE: THE PLOT AGAINST 
MEXICO 

Is there a plot against Mexico? I believe that 
there is, and that it involves several high officials 
of the United States Government; that its object is 
armed intervention in Mexico, on some pacific pre- 
text, the real purpose being permanent military oc- 
cupation of the country, so that its internal affairs 
may be administered in accordance with the in- 
terests of the conspirators. 

I believe that the originators of the plot are 
American oil men now operating in Mexican ter- 
ritory, or else greedy for an opportunity to begin 
operations there upon terms of their own dictation. 
I am aware that there exists a formidable publicity 
bureau created to poison the minds of the American 
people against Mexico, and that the publication of 
the truth regarding that imfortunate country will 
result in the publisher's being deluged with letters 
of denial, of protest, of personal vilification and 
abuse. 

Proof is difficult — unless undertaken by an 

official commission empowered to compel evidence 

— and the evidence is largely circumstantial. But 

there is enough to justify such an inquiry, if only as 

[21] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

' - m 

a means of preventing a war of invasion. (Senator 
Lodge's appointment of the most notorious enemy 
Mexico has to head an "investigation" of Mexican 
affairs was the response to this suggestion.) 

American and British oil interests in Mexico are 
centred in Tampico, in the State of Tamaulipas, but 
extend south along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico 
to Tuxpan, in the State of Vera Cruz. Seeing only 
Tampico, the visitor to Mexico would be impressed 
by the extent to which American influence has 
grown. This ancient Mexican port has developed 
into a second-rate Key West. It contains some tall 
buildings, and the only hotel in Mexico of the many 
in which I sojourned where the "scarlet creeper" 
is cultivated. Seeing only Tamaulipas, he would 
be convinced that the chief products of Mexico were 
oil and bandits, and would have registered the 
superficial impressions by no means uncommon 
among certain classes of commercial tourists. But 
having overlooked the cities of the Central Plateau, 
he would be ignorant of the real Mexico, and unable 
to contrast the peace and prosperity of the country, 
where the rule of the Constitutionalist authorities 
is supreme, with the devastation and anarchy 
wrought by bandits in the districts policed by 
"General" Pelaez on behalf of the oil men. In this 
land of contrasts Tampico is and always has been 
loyal to the Government established in Mexico City, 
and so are and have been the greater part of the 

[22] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

political districts of Tamaulipas. The State Gov- 
ernment has its seat at Ciudad Victoria, a town some 
distance from the port, and the governor, Dr. 
Osuna, who was at one time a Presbyterian mis- 
sionary, possesses as complete an administrative 
organization as can be found elsewhere; but no- 
where else in Mexico outside Villa territory is there 
such chaos as in parts of Tamaulipas. 

A topographical map would go far toward ex- 
plaining these contradictory conditions. In Ta- 
maulipas as in Vera Cruz the descent from the cool 
country of the Central Plateau to the tierra caliente, 
or hot land of the sea-coast, can be accomplished in 
a single day. A chain of mountains blocks access 
from the interior to the coast, and to the average 
traveller there are but two routes open to Tampico, 
one from San Luis Potosi, the other from Monterey, 
which lies to the north of the former city — both 
cities on the direct line of traffic between Laredo 
and Mexico City. Other routes available for horse- 
men and pedestrians are known to the natives, 
whether bandits or pacificos, but have no com- 
mercial importance. Choosing the southern route 
because it was closer to Mexico City, I left San Luis 
Potosi at 6:30 A. m., bound for the oil fields. On 
the Vera Cruz line to the capital, and throughout 
the network of roads I had traversed in Central 
Mexico, Pullman cars were in use, and travel was 
in all respects as comfortable as in the United 
[23] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

^ — 

States; perhaps more so, in our days of congestion 
and Government control; certainly more agreeable 
than my rail journey from New York to Key West 
a few weeks earlier. 

There were no Pullmans on the roads leading to 
Tampico. Pullman cars are expensive things, 
difficult to replace, even in these days of reconstruc- 
tion, and "King" Pelaez of the oil fields considers 
it a patriotic duty to blow up any rolling stock be- 
longing to the Constitutionalist Government, re- 
gardless of injury to the passengers, who are 
robbed, if still alive after the destruction of their 
train, and may enjoy the felicity of seeing whatever 
of their belongings the bandits have discarded 
burned while they await the means of returning to 
civilization. 

In the most dangerous places on this dangerous 
journey, one of Mr. Carranza's soldiers found the 
cowcatcher a seat of honour from which to scan the 
tracks ahead for evidence of dynamite. His life 
and ours depended upon the accuracy of his vision. 
Two soldiers, swinging out from either side of the 
engine-tender, watched for broken rails, open 
switches, wrecked culverts, or other proof of a 
recent visit from the Pelaez following. And 
whether danger was apparent or not, one soldier 
stood, carbine in hand, on top of a baggage car 
which contained half a dozen of his fellows, ready 
to reply to fire from ambush, or take a pot shot at 

[24] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

any bandit rolling rocks down upon us from the 
steep mountain side. 

The beginning of the danger zone was marked 
in a most extraordinary way. Certain bandits who 
ventured from the hot lands or mountain fastnesses, 
where they can hide more easily than upon the 
open plain, had been captured and hanged to the 
telegraph poles. The bodies, when we saw them, 
appeared to have been mummified in the dry pure 
air, and swung to and fro in the breeze in a state of 
perfect preservation — except as to clothes. 
Neither I nor the good lady who looks after me is 
bloodthirsty, but we had heard so much of the 
frightful crimes committed by these Mexican 
bandits who style themselves patriots, revolutionists, 
and sometimes Villistas, that I confess we tried, not 
without success and a certain grim satisfaction, to 
photograph five of these cadavers. 

As we ran into the hill country, valleys of wonder- 
ful beauty and fertility opened before us, and de- 
spite unsettled conditions shown by ruined villages 
and churches and the grouping of thatched huts as 
close as possible to the tracks, we saw that planting 
had been resumed in many places. The mountains 
did not lift their heads into the region of perpetual 
snow, and there was no such glorious giant as 
Orizaba towering above us almost the entire day, 
as when we journeyed from Vera Cruz to Mexico 
City; but we saw sheer walls of rock, like a greatly 
[25] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

magnified palisade; vast heights, so nearly perpen- 
dicular that we wondered how the verdure clung to 
them; and rifts and chasms so deep that, after a 
glance, we instinctively drew back into the car. 
Creeping at a snail's pace along a narrow shelf of 
rock, we saw suspended from a spur nearly fifteen 
hundred feet below us a train of oil cars. These 
tanks, of course, and the oil they carried were the 
property of the Tampico oil men, but apparently 
they were en route to the wicked Constitutionalist 
authorities in Mexico City; so "King" Pelaez of 
the oil fields, who guards the jungle for the oil men, 
dynamited them — perhaps mistaking them for 
passenger trains. 

We reached Tampico at midnight, several hours 
late, and with a prejudice against "General" Pelaez. 

I had been told by the American Embassy in 
Mexico City that the oil men paid Pelaez, for guard- 
ing their interests, $200,000 a month. Still, I was 
surprised to learn from the spokesman for the oil 
interests next day that they would like to see Pelaez 
president of Mexico, because he was their friend, 
and the only friend they had, as they were "in bad" 
with the Washington as well as the Mexican Gov- 
ernment. Only a few months before Pelaez was 
content with $40,000 a month blackmail, but the 
Saturday Evening Post's articles on Mexico got into 
his hands, and he "raised the ante." | 

Two years ago Pelaez and his staff lived at Terra 
[26] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

Armenia, the big oil camp belonging to "El 
Aguila," otherwise Lord Cowdray's Mexican Eagle 
Company, and were represented by "General" 
Enriquez at Juan Casiano, the biggest of the camps 
owned by the Huasteca Petroleum Company, of 
which the founders were E. L. Doheny, and C. A. 
Canfield of Los Angeles. The "Generals" were 
not at home during my visit to Tampico, having 
been dispossessed by President Carranza's soldiers 
some weeks before; so I did not have the pleasure 
of meeting them. But the oil men spoke highly of 
them, and it may be that Pelaez is now dearer to 
them because he costs them more. 

Carl Ackerman was more fortunate than I, two 
years ago. "Who is Pelaez?" he asked in Tam- 
pico. "An ignorant Mexican rancher," was the 
universal reply. "He is a revolutionist, like all of 
us, against the Carranza Government. He has a 
loyal army that protects our property and workers. 
Pelaez is king of the police in the oil districts." 

"And Enriquez?" Ackerman questioned. "A 
Mexican doctor," answered the foreigners, 
"cultured, educated and refined. He had a drug 
store in Tuxpan." ("Mexico's Dilemma," p. 80.) 

Unable to meet the "King of the Oil Fields," I 
said to the oil men: "Why don't you shut off this 
blackmail and make your peace with Mr. Car- 
ranza? No doubt your stockholders could use to 
advantage the $200,000 a month you are giving 
[27] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

Pelaez, and he doesn't seem to be delivering the 
goods." "We can't," was the invariable reply. 
"He would blow up our wells if we did. Besides, 
the State Department at Washington knows each and 
every payment we make to Pelaez, and approves it." 

Of course a guard of United States marines 
would cost these gentlemen nothing. That is the 
first incentive to the plot against Mexico — extrica- 
tion by armed force from a difficult situation — and 
at the expense of the American nation rather than 
of themselves. 

And there would be money in it! 

American oil men profess not to have made a 
cent in Mexico in years, although six months after 
my return from Mexico Doheny's company paid a 
1918 dividend of more than $14 a share, and Lord 
Cowdray's company paid a twenty-five per cent, 
dividend last January, and the Dutch Shell h\as paid 
thirty-seven per cent, and forty-eight per cent, in 
the last two years. And Mr. Doheny expects 1919 
to be the banner year for opportunities developed 
and negotiations completed. 

How much money? I cannot state the amount 
exactly, but one item of economy would be the ex- 
port tax now levied on petroleum by President 
Carranza's Government. 

According to official Mexican figures, this tax 
amounted for the year 1918 to $5,560,198.95 in 
American money. The total value of petroleum 
[28] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

exports for that year was 141,557,553.20 pesos, the 
peso being legally fifty cents American, although 
usually a trifle more valuable in the exchange. 
Exports might be increased and taxes eased off by 
American intervention. 

Official Mexican figures show that twenty-four oil 
companies own their land in fee simple and pay 
no rent. Fifty-four companies pay an annual 
rental of less than five pesos ($2.50) for one 
hectare (two and one-half acres). These com- 
panies occupy nearly seven-eighths of the oil land 
under exploitation. The total area rented by them 
is 3,325,490 acres, out of a grand total of 
4,064,870 acres. On this they pay an annual 
rental amounting to $589,320.54, or a little more 
than ten and a quarter cents per acre. Twenty-two 
companies pay annual rentals of less than $5 per 
hectare upon 138,340 acres, amounting to $166,- 
254.84. One hundred and twenty -two compa- 
nies pay more than $5 per hectare. They oc- 
cupy 175,087 acres and pay a total annual rent of 
$2,443,457.72. Several companies pay from 
$500 to $2,016 per hectare, which raises the aver- 
age, so that on the total acreage, as stated above, 
the total annual rent is $3,449,033.22. Both 
rentals and tax rates are lower than in Texas or 
Oklahoma, but under American intervention they 
might be still further reduced. 

The Mexican Secretary of Commerce and In- 
[29] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

dustry estimates the value of all oil properties in 
Mexico at $300,000,000, one-third of that sum 
being allotted to the wells. But in 1915 the 
Huasteca operators reported to their stockholders a 
physical valuation of lands at $75,000,000, and 
have since increased their acreage. Other esti- 
mates, some by Americans, place the value of 
foreign oil holdings at one billion dollars. A stake 
worth playing for? But that is not all. Only the 
surface of Mexico's wealth in petroleum has been 
exploited as yet. 

Recent efforts of the New York Sun and other 
dailies to whitewash Francisco Villa and his lieu- 
tenant, "General" Angeles, who, it is now pre- 
tended, is "Provisional President of Mexico," while 
Villa is merely his Secretary of War, shifts the 
limelight for the moment to the State of Chihuahua 
and the International Boundary. The Sun ab- 
solves Villa from the Columbus massacre on the 
ground that he was not in immediate command of 
his men at the time. No doubt the American 
people and the British Government have been 
equally misinformed regarding the murder of 
Thomas Benton in Villa's office, Juarez, April 9, 
1914, and of the score and more of Americans 
whom Villa is officially charged with having slain. 
Conclusive evidence of the moral purity of Villa 
will be found in the fact that the American oil in- 
terests maintained a financial agent and a press 

[30] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

agent with him for three years, which of course 
they would not have done had he not been as angelic 
as Angeles himself. And he is Mexico's foremost 
military leader. That was conclusively established 
at the Battle of Celaya, where General Obregon de- 
feated the Villa army of 40,000 with a force half as 
large, and drove him back with a handful of the 
men who survived to the northern mountain fast- 
nesses where he has since skulked, only re-appear- 
ing for a cattle raid from time to time until his last 
feint against Juarez. Villa's break with Carranza 
took place in September, 1914. Chihuahua has an 
area of 90,000 square miles — nearly three times the 
territory of the Kingdom of Ireland, but its popula- 
tion numbers only 227,000 — which exceeds that of 
Springfield, Mass., by 2,000. Chasing bandits 
through cactus lands isn't easy work. If you don't 
believe it, ask General Pershing. 

And a handful of men can do much damage and 
make a lot of noise. If you don't believe it, re- 
read the recent accounts of bombing outrages in 
American cities, and of riots in Washington, 
Chicago, Boston, Omaha, and elsewhere. 

But how has Villa maintained himself in all 
these years? 

Partly by stealing cattle, which find a ready 
market on the American side of the border, de- 
spite the efforts of the Border patrol to prevent 
smuggling, partly by robbing ranches and mines, 
[31] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

but chiefly through the charity of his American 
friends. 

"Innocent, well-meaning, but utterly deceived 
Villa," writes the charitably minded Carlo de 
Fornaro (Carranza and Mexico). "If he only 
knew that the Cientificos, whom he accuses of hav- 
ing affiliated with Carranza, are really pulling their 
wires from New York, and using him as a tool to 
eliminate Carranza, and this because the First Chief 
intends to carry out all the radical reforms of the 
revolution." 

Mr. de Fornaro believes, and rightly, that the 
American press, though it cannot be bought, can be 
fooled. He tells how British oil interests spent 
7,000,000 francs to corrupt the Paris press when 
Huerta was seeking a foreign loan, on the authority 
of Dr. Atl, now director of the Mexican National 
Art School, who exposed the facts in "L'Humanite." 
Then he throws some interesting light on the press 
campaign for Villa in 1913, when "the Villa pub- 
licity reached its zenith," and "as much as two 
hundred dollars was paid to a writer to get a story 
on Villa into a New York Sunday paper." 

"Even the Aguascalientes convention became a 
Punch and Judy show," he writes, "managed from 
New York, and it was used as a convenient lever to 
oust Carranza and place a puppet in his stead. . . 
In fact, all the interviews passed through the hands 

[32] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

of an American press agent of Villa, and his mani- 
festos, proclamations, and letters were written by 
the agents, and signed by Villa, who was absolutely 
ignorant of the contents of the documents." 

In the midst of a new campaign against Mexico 
through the press, one wonders how intelligent 
editors can be deceived so easily. In the case of 
a great publication like the Chicago Tribune, 
owned by people who, as revealed in the Ford libel 
suit, are also interested in the Harvester Company 
and in the oil corporations, all of which are now 
in opposition to the present Mexican Government, 
some overzealous newspaper employe might oc- 
casionally stretch a point of fact in trying to 
"roast" Mexico. 

The attitude of Mr. Hearst's papers is partly 
understandable on the grounds of that publisher's 
large property interests in Northern Mexico. But 
what about the others? 

Melville E. Stone said a few years ago in the 
course of an address at the Pulitzer School of 
Journalism, "I once had luncheon with the editor of 
the Paris Figaro, Gaston Calmette. That day his 
paper had contained what purported to be a cable 
message from New York, recounting in thrilling 
phrase the story of a massacre of a large company 
of people by Indians on Broadway. I asked him 
why he published so absurd a tale. 'Ah,' said he, 
[33] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

'there are sixty thousand brainless women in Paris. 
They are the demimonde. They read Figaro and 
these silly things amuse them,' 

"This sort of journalism," Mr. Stone added, "is 
not the most profitable sort of journalism," a state- 
ment with which one may agree, and still wonder 
why it should be blazoned to the world by certain 
American newspapers in their efforts to please the 
anti-Mexican propagandists. 

Perhaps even the great and powerful news 
gathering association of which Mr. Stone has been 
so long and with such distinction the directing 
genius is at fault. The Associated Press serves 
several newspapers in Mexico, and has its main 
office in the editorial rooms of El Universal, a 
daily with correspondents in all parts of the re- 
public. Yet its dispatches from Mexico are meagre 
and far between. 

On March 3, 1919, a Mexican official at a dinner 
given to visiting newspaper men in Mexico City, 
announced on the authority of the present Mexican 
Secretary of the Treasury that the petroleum con- 
troversy would be solved by eliminating the ret- 
roactive features of Article 27 of the new constitu- 
tion. The representative of the Associated Press 
took the floor, and asserted that he would not wire 
this statement until it was made in official form, and 
criticized the Mexican officials for their lack of sys- 
tem in communicating information to the press. 

[34] 






THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

Not wishing to duplicate, but believing that the 
information should be cabled to New York, I asked 
the A. P. man if he really meant to "spike" the 
story, late that night, intending to cable it myself. 

"Certainly I'll 'spike' it," he said. "It's plain 
propaganda, and I've been warned from head- 
quarters to let propaganda alone. There's too 
much of it on both sides." 

I shall not suggest to Mr. Stone that any member 
of his organization would be guilty of suggestio 
falsi, but here is a distinct example of suppressio 
veri, and precisely at the time when his old friends 
the Shanghai liar and the correspondent who fre- 
quently heard firing off the Mole St. Nicholas ap- 
pear to have taken their abode in Washington 
and El Paso. 

It is merely a coincidence, of course, that the oil, 
mining, and other interests now attacking the 
Mexican Government should have chosen as their 
chief press agent in New York a former general 
superintendent of the Associated Press office in 
Washington, Mr. Charles Hudson Boynton, whose 
father held that position before him. Mr. Boynton 
came to New York nearly ten years ago to engage 
in the brokerage business, and has been president 
of the American Russian Chamber of Commerce. 

In a characteristic letter covering anti-Mexican 
oil propaganda, Mr. Boynton tells the editor that 
he has now assumed the direction of affairs for 
[35] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

the National Association for the Protection of 
American Rights in Mexico, seeks "information as 
to the individual with whom we should deal when- 
ever we have information which we think would 
be of news value," and concludes by a reminder 
of old A. P. friendship: "As my new capacity 
will bring me in touch with many old acquaintances, 
I hope that you will permit me in the near future 
to renew ours." 

Frank J. Silsbee is associated as secretary with 
Mr. Boynton, who is styled "executive director," 
and the offices are located at 347 Fifth Avenue. 

But the Boynton bureau is not the only concern 
handling anti-Mexican oil propaganda. There 
seems to have been an Association of Producers of 
Petroleum in Mexico at the same address, letters to 
which appear to sometimes get in Mr. Boynton's 
hands, and there is or was until recently, an "Asso- 
ciation of Oil Producers in Mexico," which in last 
March issued a legal brief for circulation in our 
State Department, the foreign offices of other 
countries, and the diplomatic corps. It is rather 
well done, by a lawyer for the Standard Oil Co., 
I am informed, and in its summing up thus deli- 
cately hints at what will happen to church property, 
if the petroleum laws are not amended. 

"Confiscation, like conflagration, spreads. If 
Mexico consummates the confiscation of oil fields 
contemplated in her newest constitution and de- 
[36] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

crees, other confiscatory provisions of Article 22 
of this constitution will be boldly applied as against 
foreign and native holders of lands. It is undeni- 
able that such consummation will encourage similar 
spoliation of foreign owned interests in other new 
countries. The result will be commercial chaos 
and fatal retardation of industrial development in 
these new countries where development is so 
needed." 

This association lost its punch by admitting that 
if the petroleum laws were amended, the oil people 
would have no further grievances against the Mexi- 
can Government, and probably will disappear. Of 
course they have grievances. Are not the Mexi- 
cans committing the lamb-like folly of muddying 
the wells from which the oil men drink? They 
have already manufactured the bases for a new set 
of grievances, as related in the financial columns 
of the New York Sun (morning edition), of June 
7, 1919, where nothing appears offensive to the 
propagandists. 

"News that the confiscatory feature of the 
Carranza subsoil nationalization decree is now a 
dead letter has reached operators of oil companies 
in the Mexican Tampico fields. They are going 
ahead with exploration and drilling without any 
interference from the Mexican authorities. All 
foreign oil interests in Mexico got together several 
weeks ago and agreed to keep on boring and bring- 
[37] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

ing in wells without obtaining the new form of per- 
mit. This was drawn to compel obedience to the 
Carranza decree arbitrarily nationalizing Mexican 
subsoil without regard to property ownership or 
leased rights legally established before that decree 
was promulgated last winter. To obtain such a 
permit an operator had to sign an acceptance of the 
subsoil decree terms, and thereby relinquish by 
his own act his ownership or leasehold rights. 
Several new wells have been brought in by Ameri- 
can companies since the decision of the operators 
to go ahead without government permission." 

This unlawful conduct recalls the dicta of an oil 
man, widely published throughout Mexico: "If 
Mr. Carranza won't give us what we want, I'll go 
down into Mexico City and set up a government that 
will." 

Even more dangerous to international peace than 
the more or less easily recognizable propaganda of 
the press, or the alarming and untruthful official 
appeals from the governor of a border State, or 
the intentional indiscretion of a public official like 
Mr. Speaker Gillett in blurting out an attack on 
Mexico at a gathering of pan-American public men 
chiefly concerned with improving relations between 
their countries and ours, is the veiled and scientific 
attack by lawyers and other employes of the oil 
interests in their private capacities. 

Thus Mr. Ira Jewell Williams, of the Phila- 
[38] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

delphia Bar, is always ready to reply to any article 
in which a favourable opinion of Mexico may be ex- 
pressed, and to set the editor right. In so doing 
he encloses with his compliments a reprint of an 
article he wrote for the Journal of the American 
Bar Association on "Confiscation of Private Prop- 
erty of Foreigners Under Colour of a Changed Con- 
stitution." He writes on elaborate law firm 
stationery, but omits to add that he is president of 
the Panuco-Boston Oil Co., although he broke this 
rule in a recent letter to the New York Times. 

Much more frank is Thomas Edward Gibbon, at- 
torney of Los Angeles, home town of Messrs. 
Doheny and Canfield, who calls his book "a 
lawyer's indictment of the crowning infamy of four 
hundred years of misrule," dedicates it to the poor 
peon and his distinguished fellow townsmen, and 
echoes the demand for intervention. He has 
written the text-book for the interventionists, re- 
gardless of fact or of consequences, and his pub- 
lishers are the Doubleday-Page Company, once 
supposed to be close to the administration of Mr. 
Wilson. 

Careful reading of recent anti-Mexican oil prop- 
aganda shows that the press agency desires to im- 
press four points on the public: 

( 1 ) There is no plot against Mexico. 

(2) The plot against Mexico was discovered or 
invented by an author of artistic temperament. 

[39] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

(3) The oil men are spending only |30,000 a 
month in maintaining armed rebellion against the 
legitimate and recognized Government of Mexico 
through subsidies to the bandit Pelaez, and not 
$200,000 a month, as they told the American Em- 
bassy in Mexico City. 

(4) The oil interests are really engaged in mis- 
sionary work in Mexico, seeking rather to benefit 
the down-trodden peon than to exploit the natural 
wealth of the country for selfish purposes. 

These statements may seem contradictory, but 
they can be reconciled easily by any mind which 
has been thoroughly lubricated with petroleum. 
For my part, I rarely express doubt at any statement 
a press agent may make. It seems so useless. But 
points one and two are flatly denied in a document 
which is entitled to consideration: 

WILSON TO END PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

(By the Associated Press) 

Washington, March 25, 1916. — Convinced that power- 
ful influences are at work to force intervention in Mexico, 
Administration officials were today considering just what 
steps shall be taken to bring tlie agitation to an end. . . . 
President Wilson is said to be determined to stop the cir- 
culation of inflammatory rumours, and to take legal steps 
if necessary. 

I yield the honour of discovery, if it is an honour, 
to the President of the United States, who is thus 

[40] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

denounced, I believe for the first time, as an author 
of artistic temperament. 

His proclamation of an order to stop gun-running 
into Mexico would indicate that he really means 
business, and there is no doubt that the complete 
pacification of Mexico would quickly be an accom- 
plished fact if unlawful traffic in arms and ammuni- 
tion were stopped, and legitimate sales to the con- 
stituted authorities encouraged. 

If the Police Department of New York City were 
denied the right to purchase weapons, and the gun- 
men and gangsters encouraged to buy automatics 
and ammunition in Jersey City, it is probable that 
there would be an increase of crime in New York, 
and there is no doubt about the effect of a similar 
policy for the last few years in Mexico. The num- 
ber of murders of American citizens in the last nine 
years is the saddest of proofs that a definite policy 
is essential to peace along the border. Most of 
these murders were committed by outlaws armed 
with weapons of American manufacture, and trains 
have been blown up and bridges destroyed by dyna- 
mite "made in America." 

Naturally the "flimsy" factory maintained by the 
interventionists in Washington, has been working 
double shifts behind closed doors for several weeks, 
for circumstantial evidence points to this as the 
propitious hour in which to force armed invasion 
of Mexico. The presidential terms of Woodrow 
[41] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

Wilson and Venustiano Carranza are drawing to a 
close. Mr. Wilson, who has seized the republics 
of Santo Domingo, Haiti, and Nicaragua, without 
loosing the American grip on Panama, has tlirice in- 
vaded Mexico without a declaration of war, and 
might be persuaded to do so again. Indeed, the 
very terms of his latest proclamation make it pos- 
sible for him to establish or overturn any Govern- 
ment in Mexico, simply by instructing Mr. Lansing! 
to whom munitions may be consigned. The next] 
president of the United States may be of a different 
moral and political type. Moreover, Mr. Car-I 
ranza may be replaced by one of those smooth di-l 
plomatists not uncommon in Latin-America, with! 
whom it would be next to impossible to pick a] 
quarrel. 

But the "flimsy" factory has had a run of bad! 
luck. No sooner had it obtained first page in every 
daily in the United States for a picturesque story 
of an insult to the American flag than the Navy De- 
partment admitted that a party of skylarking 
sailors, who had gone fishing beyond the outposts i 
maintained by the Carranza Government around' 
Tampico, had been robbed; and that they had gone 
into the bandit-land (ruled by "the King of the Oil 
Fields") without permission, and had carried no 
flag. Eff'orts to fix on Mr. Carranza's soldiers re- 
sponsibility for the murder of an American citizen 
and the outrages committed on his wife by bandits j 
[42] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

also failed, although the shocking story would have 
received more space had not the race riots in Wash- 
ington seemed bigger news. The evidence of 
Ambassador Fletcher likewise proved a great dis- 
appointment to the interventionists. Instead of 
half the territory of the republic being held by the 
rebels, as the New York Times proved by a map 
and a long article on the day of its interesting in- 
quest into the death of Francisco Villa, Mr. Fletcher 
said that practically the whole country was con- 
trolled by the Government at Mexico City. How- 
ever, Mr. Fletcher, who had spent many months in 
Mexico, had been deluded by the Carrancistas, as 
Mr. Hearst, who has not been in Mexico, proved by 
reprinting the Times's figures, and the Times has 
told its readers just how many men would be needed 
to conquer Mexico. 

Still there are hopeful signs for the future from 
the point of view of the interventionist. The great 
State of Texas, which so carefully enforces racial 
equality and Christian good government that there 
has only been one negro lynched since the race riots 
of last summer, would like to conquer Mexico with- 
out aid from the Government at Washington. 
Furthermore, the Times refrained from killing 
Villa entirely, and the capture of Juarez by the 
angelic Provisional President of Mexico and Sec- 
retary of War Villa, which may be attempted again, 
would be a fine moral victory over the Carrancistas. 
[43] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

And even if Juarez weren't captured, there would 
be found plenty of newspapers to devote a column 
on the first page to the glorification of Villa's 
victory, and his forbearance in executing only eight 
Carranza officials, and then deny the story next day 
in a stickful of type at the bottom of an inside ad- 
vertising page. That was, of course, the way Chi- 
huahua City was "captured" recently. It was 
briefly explained that Villa hadn't really captured 
the city, but was planning to do so; and so the 
eight Carranza officials came to life again! And 
most of our American dailies swallowed whole the 
extraordinary "evidence" presented by Mr. William 
Gates, although Mr. Gates is known chiefly from his 
propagandist articles in the North American Review 
and the World's Work. We are indeed a credulous 
folk. 

Besides, this would be the opportunity to do 
something for the army now being withdrawn from 
Europe. America is well supplied with munitions, 
with poison gas, and with seasoned officers. These 
officers, especially those who are being detained in 
the service, and can account for the fact in no 
other way, expect an invasion of Mexico. Talk 
to them in confidence, if you don't believe it, and 
see what they say. From the greenest cadet to the 
oldest U. S. A. retired, they expect to "clean up" 
Mexico. And the thing is so easy — on paper. A 
retired colonel made the statement a few days ago 

[44] 







SELF PORTRAITURE 

By German Gedovius 
professor in the Nacional Academy 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

that it would take only 200,000 men to conquer 
and pacify Mexico. But this is an exaggerated 
estimate. Plans have actually been drawn, and 
placed conj&dentially before more than one United 
States Senator and more than one member of the 
House of Representatives, showing that only 35,000 
men will be required. These plans are familiar 
also to at least two men as remotely apart as New 
York and Mexico City, for both have talked to me 
about them, and their figures were identical, as told 
in a later chapter. 

It must be admitted, however, that while the 
psychological moment for invading Mexico is near 
at hand, some of the separate movements which are 
designed to strike terror into the hearts of the 
Mexican officials, and which might have had that 
effect had they been simultaneous, have failed to 
sjrnchronize. In order to make it appear that 
President Carranza controls only a small part of 
the 767,005 square miles of Mexican territory — ^ 
five per cent., according to the information made 
public by a New York banker at a public dinner 
last winter — the World's Work carried a series of 
articles giving a personal estimate of the other 
"chiefs." Included among them, of course, was 
Emiliano Zapata. While the magazine was still on 
the news-stands, Zapata had passed to the Great Be- 
yond, having long before ceased to be a real factor 
in the affairs of the State of Morelos, where he had 
[45] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

once been supreme. An illiterate Indian, Zapata 
was none the less a master of guerrilla warfare. 
After his revolt against Huerta, that crafty soldier 
sent as many as 30,000 troops, armed with machine 
guns and cannon, against him. Zapata defeated 
small bodies of troops in many engagements, and 
when outnumbered, went into hiding. But when 
Constitutionalist rule was established in Mexico 
City, Zapata declined to acknowledge the leadership 
of Mr. Carranza, having been persuaded by Manuelj 
Palafox, his secretary, that he, Zapata, should have 
been named for the presidency. Mr. Carranza,] 
all attempts at conciliation having failed, sent] 
General Pablo Gonzalez into Morelos last winter. 
Zapatista rule came to a speedy end. Zapata was^ 
killed, together with his friends, Mejia, Amoles, and 
Palacios; "General" Jaurequi was executed after 
a court martial, and Zapata's body, having been 
exposed for purposes of identification at Cuatla, 
was buried there on April 12. The death of 
General Aureliano Blanquet, following that of 
Zapata, put an end to the possibility of overthrow- 
ing the present Government of Mexico by concerted 
rebellion within Mexican territory. 

The landing of General Blanquet in Mexico was 
planned and financed in New York, and was at- 
tended by a fine burst of press-agent eloquence ii 
the New York dailies. Who paid the bills is not 
stated. Perhaps it was the German Government 
[46] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

which defrayed the cost, as newspaper readers 
will remember, of the proposed invasion of Mexico 
by General Huerta, just before that worthy was 
captured by United States authorities and placed in 
the prison where he died. The fact that Germany 
financed Huerta's attempt against Carranza is a 
further revelation of the astute double-dealing of 
that evil race, because, if you will believe the oil 
men, Carranza himself was pro-German, and this 
naturally leads to the inference that Germany must 
also have backed Blanquet. At any rate somebody 
did. 

Blanquet was to join forces with Felix Diaz, who 
was said to control the States of Vera Cruz, Tabasco, 
Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacan, Jalisco, 
Guanajuato, Puebla, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosi, 
Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Chihuahua, 
and the Territory of Tepic. Having been secretary 
of war under Huerta, Blanquet was expected to 
unite the forces of Zapata, Diaz, Villa, and Pelaez 
and thus form an armed ring around the Consti- 
tutionalist Government, and kill it by constriction, 
boa-fashion. 

Unfortunately, at the time of his landing, Blan- 
quet learned that Felix Diaz had abdicated his 
authority in all but one of the states named and 
taken refuge in Vera Cruz, where, with a few fol- 
lowers, he amused himself by dynamiting trains, 
until General Candido Aguilar put a stop to that 
[47] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

sort of sport; after which he took to robbing hen- 
roosts. Villa, the leg he lost in the Columbus raid 
having been kindly restored by the New York news- 
papers, must have been courting the girl he married 
recently, as gravely chronicled in the same vera- 
cious journals on June 14, and Pelaez was fleeing 
before Carranza soldiers somewhere between Tux- 
pan and Tampico. Going first from New York to 
Havana, Blanquet and seven companions sailed 
for Mexico in a small vessel and landed at Palma 
Sola, some distance north of the port of Vera Cruz. 
Thence they made their way inland to the village 
of Chavaxtla, where they were welcomed by Pedro 
Gabay, one of the Diaz band ; but while they were in 
conference, General Guadalupe Sanchez attacked 
them. Gabay fled, but Blanquet was killed, almost 
by the first volley, and with him died General Luis 
Amado, Colonel Traslosheros, and his private 
secretary. General Francisco Alvarez was court- 
martialed and shot. 

Comments La Revista Mexicana: "In his death 
the followers of Madero and the supporters of the 
Constitutionalist Government see a just vengeance 
for the treason and assassinations in which he took 
part. They also see in the collapse of the move- 
ment so pretentiously heralded and advocated, the 
practical collapse at no late date of the eff^orts of 
Felix Diaz, who remains in hiding in the mountain 
fastnesses of Vera Cruz, and evincing, as he always 

[48] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

has done, no 'stomach' for a fight in the open, but 
contenting himself with sporadic raids for plunder 
and murder, and with the issuance of bombastic 
proclamations." 

It may be that the plot against Mexico will prove 
a fiasco as a whole, that the complete fabric will 
be no stronger than its weakest part, but it is a 
danger, more menacing to the United States than 
any other now presented by our highly complex 
foreign relations. 

May we not hope that the financial controversies 
between citizens of the United States and our weaker 
neighbours can be solved by open diplomacy rather 
than by armed intervention, no matter by what 
altruistic professions violence is prefaced or ac- 
companied? 

Shall we throw to the winds the peace of a con- 
tinent as lightly as though it were a mere "scrap of 
paper .'' 

Shall we deny to our next door neighbour to the 
south the right of self determination we should not 
dare deny to our next door neighbour to the north? 

Let us not send for the bowl of P. Pilatus. After 
washing our hands we may be compelled to swear 
to all the world: "No, gentlemen. You mistake 
the odour. What you smell on our hands is Attar 
of Roses . . . not Petroleum." 



[49] 



CHAPTER TWO: THREE SOLUTIONS 
FOR OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM 

In writing about Mexico I find that I have greatly 
displeased a small minority of my countrymen 
who advocate an armed intervention in that country, 
and threaten libel suits against all who oppose them. 
I am sorry for this, but console myself with the 
thought that the interventionists, although important 
because of great wealth and powerful political in- 
fluence, number less than 2,000, while the people 
who would bear the expense, the brunt of the fight- 
ing, and the crime of war for conquest against a 
small nation, exceed 100,000,000. 

Most of the interventionists have never been in 
Mexico, but have financial interests there in oil, 
mines, or ranches. This is the explanation of the 
difference between us. I have been in Mexico, and 
I have no financial interests there. When in 
Mexico I found no difficulty in obeying the laws of 
the country, and it seems to me that I would have 
been bound by them, if I had been the owner of an 
oil well. Perhaps great wealth modifies one's 
point of view. It seems to have had that effect in 
anarchistic Tampico. 

But since the Mexican problem is one of our 
[50] 



OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM 



making, it ought to interest every citizen. Let 
us try to see it, therefore, as loyal Americans, 
fairly, squarely, and consider the possible solutions, 
of which I offer three. 

The past of Mexico belongs to Porfirio Diaz. 
An Indian soldier, he grew in greatness almost to 
three score and ten, and until he became senile, the 
country grew with him. Before him there had 
been heroic patriots, wise theorists, far-sighted 
statesmen, but from the time of Montezuma, none 
save he alone was able to unite and direct the 
heterogeneous elements of the Mexican population 
in such a way as to give Mexico an honoured place 
among the nations. No viceroy was able to rule so 
firmly or so long. No president or emperor con- 
ceived of the material progress to which he guided 
his compatriots. 

The present of Mexico belongs also to Porfirio 
Diaz, for the defects of his great qualities are still 
felt. The evil that men do lives after them, and 
the evil of Don Porfirio was both of omission and 
commission. His government was merely a mili- 
tary autocracy, powerful so long as he retained his 
mental vigour, and to undo the things wrought in his 
old age a revolution was inevitable. Neglect of 
public education for the masses, without which re- 
publican government is a farce, was the greatest of 
his sins of omission, and it will take years of hard 
work to give Mexico a literate electorate. 
[51] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

The future of Mexico belongs to the revolution, 
of which Venustiano Carranza has been the presid- 
ing genius. In the year remaining of his term he 
will go far toward restoring the order and stability 
which characterized the rule of Diaz in his prime, 
but with a regard for the rights of the peon, the 
mechanic and the shopkeeper hitherto unknown in 
Mexico. 

The constitution of 1917 forbids the re-election 
of Seiior Carranza, and he will uphold the funda- 
mental law he helped create. 

Today in Mexico evolution is succeeding revolu- 
tion, but civil war is costly, and the cost is still un- 
paid. Destruction of material wealth can be re- 
stored from the sources whence it was derived, 
mines of incredible richness, soil of inexhaustible 
fertility, a vast territory having docile labour, tre- 
mendous waterpower, and at least a third of the 
world's petroleum supply. 

But Mexico has always been a debtor nation. In 
comparison with those of her three chief creditors, 
the United States, Great Britain and France, her 
debts are trivial; but these three powers having 
undergone a terrific strain, having spent in a 
month more than Mexico lost in ten years of civil 
strife, are becoming importunate. They are pre- 
paring to demand a cash settlement. Mexico's 
revenues are greater than ever, her prosperity is 
assured if she can find a way of placating her 
[52] 



OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM 



creditors, but at the present moment she can neither 
pay principal nor arrearages of interest. This 
doesn't mean that Mexico is bankrupt, for her 
assets are a thousand times in excess of her liabili- 
ties. It simply means that she can't convert these 
assets into cash quickly enough to avoid the danger 
of foreclosure. 

The public debt of Mexico, the national debt, 
as we should call it, had reached the sum of 520,- 
853,586.56 pesos in January, 1919. Bear in mind 
that normally the peso is only 50 cents in Ameri- 
can money, and that the greater part of the debt is 
owed either on bonds without date or maturing 
many years hence, and all at low interest, and the 
total seems ridiculously low. 

Unfortunately Mr. Carranza was compelled to 
finance the revolution without recourse to foreign 
loans, which were impossible, owing to the world 
war, and while his administration is able to pay its 
way, it has not been able to pay in full interest 
on the national debt, and of the total given above 
92,170,899.61 pesos represents interest due this 
year or overdue. The total also includes the Muni- 
cipal Loan of 1889, amounting to 12,525,815.47 
pesos, which matures this year. 

Mexico's estimated revenue for 1919 may be 

figured at a minimum of 180,000,000 pesos. If 

the Municipal Loan of 1889 were refunded, 115,- 

000,000 pesos additional would more than square 

[53] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

accounts for interest up to 1920, and no banker 
would hestitate to lend this sum or take up the 1889 
loan if the three chief creditor nations, the United 
States, Great Britian and France sanctioned the 
transaction. Mexico's financial agents were told 
in New York nearly a year ago that the entire 
transaction could be financed here, if Washington 
could be induced to say "go ahead." In what 
other country is the money to be had? Japan? 

The three powers named appear to have resolved 
to utilize the immediate necessities of Mexico to 
force settlement of: 

(1) The railways dispute. 

(2) The petroleum controversy. 

(3) Claims of their respective nationals arising 
from the revolution. 

It must be borne in mind that when the revolution 
began the Mexican Government owned the control 
of 80 per cent, of the railways in the republic. In 
taking over the remaining fifth of the rails, "the 
high handed confiscatory act" of Mr. Carranza was 
therefore only 20 per cent, as heinous as that of 
Mr. Wilson, who likewise took over the railways 
of the United States when our country entered the 
war, and who seems to be in no hurry about return- 
ing them to their owners. Mr. Wilson, of course, 
merely followed the example of Great Britain and 
France in nationalizing the railways, but prior to 
these identical and necessary war measures, the 

[54] 



i 



OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM 



press of all three countries denounced "confiscation 
of private property in Mexico," and editors still 
take a whack at Mr. Carranza on this subject, al- 
though instead of demanding a billion dollars to 
make good a deficit of a single year, Mr. Carranza 
has run the Mexican railways at a profit, and with- 
out raising the tariff for passenger traffic. 

Soon after establishing his Government in Mexico 
City, Mr. Carranza returned the Vera Cruz road to 
the capital to private owners, in response to strong 
representations from the British Government, most 
of the shareholders being British ; but as the owners 
were unable to prevent frequent interruptions of 
traffic from followers of the late Emiliano Zapata 
and of Felix Diaz, he was obliged to resume control 
six months later. 

The Mexican Government has always professed 
that it would compensate the private shareholders 
as soon as it had the money, but large sums have 
been required for repairs and construction. I have 
before me as I write the statement of Felipe Pes- 
cador, who became director general of the national 
railways when Sefior Pani went abroad. He says, 
March 19: "The National Railways of Mexico 
registered a gain in 1918 of 9,379,394.94 pesos in 
comparison with the receipts for 1917." He then 
calls attention to several new lines constructed dur- 
ing 1918, and to further improvements he believes 
to be justified in view of this proof of a business 
[55] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

boom in Mexico. From what I saw of the country I 
incline to agree that Mexico is ready for railway ex- 
pansion, and needs only ready cash with which to 
proceed. Col. Paulino Fontes, now at the head of 
the railways of the republic, is a man of energy and 
ability who learned the railroad business "from the 
ground up" by starting as a brakeman, many years 
ago, on a Texas railway. 

The petroleum controversy is largely political. 
It is true that Article 27 of the new constitution o£i 
1917 appears to confiscate all existing oil develop 
ments, but another section of this same fundamental 
law prohibits retroactive legislation. The Mexican 
Congress now has before it a measure to correct the 
confiscatory feature of Article 27, but it would be 
supreme folly in the Mexican Government to meet 
the demands of the oil men so long as they supply 
arms, munitions, food and large sums of money to 
such bandits an "General" Pelaez, who maintain 
an insurrection under pretence of guarding the oil 
camps. 

An amicable arrangement can be made by Ameri- 
can oil interests the moment they decide to conform 
to law and cease fomenting rebellion, but if, as the 
newspapers have repeatedly said, Lord Cowdray has 
sold his Mexican Eagle and other oil interests to 
the British Government, I have read the clause in 
the concession under which he operates by which 
such sale automatically annuls it. Lord Cowdray's 
[56] 



I 



OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM 



company can have no great grievance against the 
Mexican Government, for it paid a 25 per cent, divi- 
dend last year, surpassed only by the 48 per cent, 
dividend of the Royal Dutch Shell, and as it is cer- 
ain that the Mexican Eagle cannot pass title to a for- 
eign government, it does not seem probable that 
Lord Cowdray would be selling gold bricks to Great 
Britain. Allied diplomacy was not in agreement in 
Mexico regarding the petroleum controversy last 
spring, but the presence of an American owner of 
vast Mexican properties at the conference in Paris 
may have had a harmonizing effect. 

As to the claims of the Great Powers for damages 
arising from the revolution to their nationals, I 
was told by an American lawyer resident in Mexico 
City that Americans place their damages at $100,- 
000,000, and the French and British at $100,- 
000,000 more. I could not believe this statement 
until I had verified it through diplomatic channels. 
According to the figures prepared by Marion 
Letcher, American Consul in Chihuahua in 1912, 
American investments in Mexico totalled $1,057,- 
770,000; those of the British, largely in rails, 
$321,303,000; the French, $143,466,000, includ- 
ing $17,000,000 in rails. 

These railway investments in Mexico are sound, 

and the greater part of the money invested in mines, 

oil developments and ranches is secure, and how 

the claims of three sets of nationals for the destruc- 

[57] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

tion of personal and movable property can ever 
have reached the grand total of $200,000,000 is a 
mystery which can be solved only by the court of 
claims, international commission, or whatever 
organization has occasion to audit them. 

Regardless of the justice of these claims, it is 
plain that Mexico's creditors are in a formidable 
position, and able to enforce whatever terms they 
may agree upon. They have money, ships, men, 
and the might that goes with them. Perhaps an 
agreement was entered into at the Peace Conference, 
in which case its nature will doubtless be disclosed 
when Mr. Wilson sees fit. 

But after ten years of uncertainty and vacillation, 
Americans and Mexicans have a right to a definite 
declaration of policy at the earliest moment pos- 
sible. 

"What is Mr. Wilson going to do?" is the way 
Americans in Mexico put the matter. 

"What is the new Congress of the United States 
going to do?" is the Mexican version of the same 
question. 

And in Mexico you hear these questions on all 
sides, for it is perfectly understood down there that 
the attitude of her powerful neighbour to the north 
means prosperity or ruin to Mexico. 

As Americans in Mexico see the situation, there 
are three ways of solving the problem of Mexico's 
future. Various minor modifications in plans were 
[58] 



OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM 



suggested, but all were reducible to these simple 
formulae : 

(A) Financial assistance, backed by good will 
of the American people, and genuine and intelli- 
gent co-operation by the Government at Washington. 

(B) Refusal to Mexican overtures for financial 
assistance in combination with a solemn pledge not 
to meddle in Mexico's affairs at home or abroad. 

(C) Armed intervention and permanent occupa- 
tion of the Mexican Republic by the United States. 

Either of the first two plans would be acceptable 
to a majority of the Americans in Mexico, and to 
the majority of the Mexicans themselves. 

Employes of the American oil interests in Tam- 
pico, and a group of mine and ranch owners favour 
intervention, which would be fought by the popula- 
tion of the republic as one man and to the last ditch. 

Let us consider briefly each of these possible 
solutions. I have shown, and I desire to emphasize 
the fact, that Mexico is not bankrupt. She is 
merely temporarily embarrassed, can be tided over 
by any one or all three of her chief creditors, and 
can, I believe, obtain the money elsewhere, if these 
three chief creditors will permit her to do so. 
There is today in actual circulation in the republic 
more than 80,000,000 pesos of gold and silver 
metallic currency, which is usually above par. 
The genius of Luis Cabrera placed the country on 
a gold basis under conditions which would else- 
[59] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

where have been regarded as prohibitive, and 
stories to the contrary are mere propaganda. 

If cut off from the United States for ten years by 
a Chinese Wall of sufficient height, the Mexicans 
could easily work out their own salvation. But her 
next door neighbour, the richest and most powerful 
nation in the world, gobbled up nearly half of the 
original territory of Mexico in the last century, and, 
in the opinion of intelligent foreigners, is about 
ready at this time to swallow the rest at a single 
gulp. This being the case, Mexico cannot finance 
herself except in the United States; and yet Luis 
Cabrera, now secretary of the Mexican treasury, 
assured me last winter that a loan of $500,000,000 
would suffice to put the country on a prosperous in- 
dustrial basis, clear up back claims, and fully equip 
the railways for the additional traffic they will 
necessarily handle. Half a billion for such a pro- 
gram seems small when it is remembered that Di- 
rector General Hines, of the U. S. Railway Ad- 
ministration, demanded $1,280,000,000 from Con- 
gress to provide for the expected deficit of the rail- 
roads in 1919 alone. 

Is it safe to lend money to Mexico? 

Was it safe to lend money to Great Britain, 
France, Italy or Belgium? 

Notwithstanding assertions of the intervention- 
ists that the Government headed by Mr. Car- 
ranza controls barely half of Mexico, any man who 

[60] 



i 



OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM 



has been in Mexico within the last six months knows 
better. The fact is, the present Government of 
Mexico is the strongest since that of Diaz, and even 
men like former Provisional President de la Barra, 
now an exile in Paris, admit that Mexico can work 
out her own problem if the United States does not 
interfere by an armed intervention. 

Terms of the proposed loan and conditions for its 
expenditure, if any, can only be made in Mexico 
City under the eye of President Carranza, who is 
in the habit of taking personal direction of all im- 
portant matters. I have heard suggestions that the 
loan might be expended under the supervision of a 
commission of Mexican bankers, employing at least 
one American financial expert to act in an advisory 
capacity. Any stipulation of this kind must, how- 
ever, be drawn with due respect to the dignity of the 
nation, as the Mexicans see it, and in matters of 
national honour the present Government is, to ex- 
press it mildly, supersensitive. With an embargo 
on gun running actually enforced by the United 
States authorities, a genuine co-operation on the 
part of Washington in adjusting international dif- 
ferences, suppression of illegal acts by American 
corporations or individuals doing business in 
Mexico, in a word the friendly relations implied by 
our recognition of the Carranza Government, 
Mexico can be made as agreeable a neighbour as 
Canada, and that before the expiration of the presi- 
[61] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

dential terms of Mr. Carranza and Mr. Wilson. 

Refusal upon the part of the American bankers 
to assist Mexico financially, if coupled with a defi- 
nite announcement by the Government of the United 
States that it will not interfere with Mexico's 
affairs, either at home or abroad, would result in 
the rehabilitation of that country almost as quickly 
as an American loan. Japan, grown rich in gold 
as a result of the war, could finance Mexico without 
ever missing the $500,000,000 required. Harbour 
privileges on Mexico's West Coast, concessions as 
to a trans-oceanic freight route at Tehuantepec, oil 
concessions, safe-guarded to Mexico under the 
famous Article 27 — any of these things would be 
a sufficient inducement to the financiers of Japan, 
of France, of Great Britain, if the United States 
would pledge non-interference. 

Loss of Mexican trade would be the result of 
such a policy, but neither American business men 
nor the American Government have displayed 
much interest in Mexican trade, and the burden 
would fall on Americans now engaged in legitimate 
business in Mexico. 

Of the third proposed solution of the Mexican 
problem — armed intervention — I would not write 
a line did I not know that plans for the invasion 
of Mexico were secretly drawn months ago, and 
placed before certain senators and congressmen 
who are supposed to have approved them. The 
[62] 



OVR MEXICAN PROBLEM 



project is too grotesquely insane to merit more than 
laughter from a self respecting, honour loving 
people, as the Americans proved themselves to be 
once more in the crucial test of the war against 
Germany. But grotesque as it is, secret intrigue, 
slimy propaganda, the use of tainted millions may 
easily bring about an international crisis from 
which war would seem the only way out. To avert 
this danger pitiless publicity is the only weapon. 

I believe that the war from which the United 
States has just emerged triumphantly was a Holy 
War, and that the cause we upheld was that of civi- 
lization against barbarism. 

Now that our wounds are still unhealed, when 
the lists of our dead are still incomplete, when we 
have cheerfully assumed such staggering debts that 
the cost of our Civil War seems picayune, Ameri- 
cans will not knowingly be forced into an unjust 
war against a weaker nation, a war of greed, of 
lust for conquest and spoliation, no matter upon 
what high sounding pretext. 

We have been told that our war with Germany 
was to make such things impossible for all times 
to come, and I believe that we Americans are 
highly resolved that they shall be impossible. 

I have spoken of plans. There may be several, 
but this one, simple and direct, was outlined to me 
by an American citizen in Mexico City last April 
almost word for word as it was suggested to me three 

[63] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

months earlier by an American citizen in New York 
City. 

"We won't call it war, but pacific intervention, 
or some other name that will not alarm our people. 
We will begin by again seizing the Port of Vera 
Cruz, but this time we shall take Mexico City as 
well, and occupy the entire Federal District, which 
is all the territory we shall need to hold for some 
years. Not more than thirty-five thousand men will 
be required for this purpose, and there will be very 
little bloodshed, for the Mexicans are as tired 
fighting as any race in Europe. 

"An educational campaign will be begun the 
moment our troops land. Proclamations will be 
scattered broadcast in Spanish informing the Mexi- 
cans that our only object in landing is to restore 
order, to build up Mexico, and to make life and 
property secure. 

"There will be no trouble about getting educated 
Mexicans to assist in this educational campaign, and 
we will place such of them as can be trusted in 
ornamental positions in such numbers that the 
Government will still seem to be in the hands of 
the Mexicans. 

"Our army will be used as the nucleus of a 
Mexican national army to be composed of natives, 
who will be well paid and comfortably clothed and 
fed, and who will make admirable soldiers, when 
officered by Americans. Of our own men, 15,000 

[64] 



OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM 



will suffice to hold Vera Cruz and the line of com- 
munications, and 20,000 will police the capital and 
surrounding territory until the native constabulary 
has been established. As the Mexican force in- 
creases in size, young Mexicans of good family 
will be encouraged to accept minor commissions, 
and American jurisdiction will be extended from 
the Federal District in an ever widening circle until 
the whole of the territories of the republic have been 
pacified and occupied." 

I asked both my informants if they did not think 
in view of the lessons derived from our previous 
occupation of Mexico's chief sea-port, and our 
Punitive Expedition against Villa, it would be better 
to start with 200,000 men, but they were sure 
35,000 would be enough, which figure corresponds 
pretty closely with the two divisions estimated as 
necessary by the American officers in Coblenz 
quoted in a cable to the New York Times of July 
15. They were sure that 35,000 would suffice, that 
the capture of Mexico City could be eff"ected within 
a month after landing at Vera Cruz, and that the 
whole of Mexico could be pacified in two years. 

"What do we get out of it?" I asked. 

"Mexico!" 

Here in New York, there in Mexico, the answer 
was the same. 

Mexico! 767,005 square miles; 14,000,000 of 
population accustomed in normal times to in- 
[65] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

dustrious habits and low wages; 10 per cent, of 
the world's silver supply coming from the Federal 
District alone; the greatest petroleum fields in the 
world, already yielding nearly as much as those 
of the United States; agricultural lands producing 
everything from bananas to wheat. 

On paper the scheme looks like the easiest and 
most profitable grand larceny ever conceived by 
Americans. 

Would it be so in reality? 

To the gentleman in New York I said: "Don't 
you think your figures are too low? Instead of an 
expeditionary force of 35,000, would not half 
a million be needed? Would it not cost us 
200,000 in lives, ten years of hard fighting, at least 
two billions in treasure, and would we not at the 
end of ten years have earned the eternal hate of 
Mexico, the undying ill-will of all Latin-America, 
and the contempt of the rest of the world?" 

I could see he had a poor opinion of my knowl- 
edge of Mexico, of finance, and of military mat- 
ters, as he assured me that I was in error. 

But having seen Mexico, and studied the Mexi- 
cans, I am now convinced that my own bill of costs 
was too low. 

In ex-President Taft's time, when intervention 
seemed imminent, an official calulation is said to 
have been made as to the probable cost in money 
and in men. It was then estimated that some four 

[66] 



OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM 



hundred thousand soldiers would be required for 
at least two years, while the money cost would run 
into the billions. 

"Since then," the New Republic comments, "the 
standards of war expenditures, both in men and in 
money, have greatly advanced. ... A million 
men and five billion dollars might suffice to sub- 
jugate Mexico; hardly less. Where are the men 
and the billions to come from? Must we resort 
again to conscription and to increased direct taxa- 
tion, in order that the oil and metal profiteers may 
be secure in their projects of rapid enrichment?" 



[67] 



CHAPTER THREE: AN INTERVIEW WITH 
PRESIDENT CARRANZA 

"We are beginning to understand President Car- 
ranza, and to think he is really a great man; but 
is he great enough? That is the question." 

And that question, propounded to me by the 
editor of a New York newspaper on the eve of my 
departure for Mexico, haunted me for weeks, until 
I became convinced that the answer should be in 
the affirmative, and so informed him. 

My opinion of the man is based upon the tangible 
evidence of real achievement, upon personal con- 
tact, and upon the things said about Mr. Carranza 
no less by his friends than by his enemies. 

One cannot spend much time in Mexico without 
realizing that in all the tragic years following the 
retirement of Porfirio Diaz, Venustiano Carranza 
is the one real leader evolved, the one man able to 
hold his own despite opposition at home or abroad. 

One cannot travel extensively in the Mexican Re- 
public without knowing that today the greater part 
of the country is at peace, that the complete pacifi- 
cation of the land may be expected the moment 
foreign aid is withdrawn from bandits posing as 
patriotic revolutionists, that business conditions 

[68] 



INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA 

have greatly improved, that reconstruction is 
actually under way, and that the guiding genius of 
law, of order, and of progress, is the President. 

Such a man makes strong friends and bitter 
enemies. His friends praise him for his personal 
qualities and his sense of justice. They tell you 
frankly that they see no evil in him, and refer you 
to his political opponents for the shadows with 
which to complete your picture. 

But his enemies do not attack his private char- 
acter, or those public performances for which 
executive authority is solely responsible. They 
condemn him, as General Grant was condemned, 
because he loves his friends, and trusts them. In 
this they are not altogether wrong. In more than 
one instance, the President has been deceived by 
those calling themselves his friends, but not for 
long. 

To the discontented, whether Mexican or Ameri- 
can, it was my rule while in Mexico to listen pa- 
tiently, and then invariably to slip in the question: 
"If Mr. Carranza has failed to make good as presi- 
dent, who can be depended upon to produce good 
results in that office?" No one had a candidate for 
the presidency until a Tampico oil man suggested 
the bandit Pelaez, and I incline to think he was 
spoofing. 

Mr. Carranza is a. big man, physically, towering 
over the heads of the average group of Mexicans. 
[69] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

And he is a big man mentally, well educated, well 
read; a lawyer by profession, a planter by prefer- 
ence, a statesman through force of circumstances. 
For common sense, ability to judge men, and for 
quickness of decision, he perhaps has one rival in 
the republic. This man, who surpasses most 
Mexicans in vision, and is commonly spoken of as 
"the Brains of the Revolution," is Luis Cabrera, 
the President's devoted friend. 

Of ancient and honourable Castilian ancestry, 
Mr. Carranza entered political life as a member of 
the State Legislature of Coahuila, represented this 
state afterwards as a federal senator, and was its 
governor at the time of the Huerta usurpation. 
When I knew him, in the spring of 1919, his 
sixtieth year, he was in his prime. Most Mexicans 
of the better class are horsemen, but the President 
was recognized as one of the best, and there are 
several of his officials who accompained him on a 
fifty-seven mile ride to Cuernavaca who have 
promised themselves never to ride with him again. 
Of the details of his career from February, 1913, 
when as Governor of Coahuila he disavowed the 
Huerta government, newspaper files afford a com- 
plete record, which may be supplemented by ex- 
amination of the semi-official biographies of 
Palavicini and others. 

My purpose is to present the President of the 
United States of Mexico to the people of my own 

[70] 




ISABEL DE PORTUGAL 
By Pelegi-i'n Clave, 1872-1890 



INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA 

country by direct quotation of his views on im- 
portant questions, with a sketchy record of the con- 
versation when he received me in audience at the 
National Palace. 

Mr. Carranza prefers to make his home in a 
private house on the Paseo de la Reforma which is 
in no way conspicuous among the palatial structures 
which front on that splendid boulevard, and some- 
times uses the official summer residence in the 
woods of Chapultepec for state functions. Or- 
dinary business, however, is transacted at the 
Palacio Nacional, a vast structure on the site of 
Montezuma's palace, affording ample room for the 
treasury department and the national museum as 
well as for the offices of the chief magistrate. 

At four o'clock a fanfare of trumpets announced 
the arrival of Mr. Carranza, and I passed through 
a long series of antechambers to the handsome 
apartment reserved for public receptions. The 
President, who had been seated in an easy chair 
beside a small table, arose to greet us with a firm 
grasp of the hand and a pleasant smile. I say 
"us," because on this and subsequent occasions, I 
was accompanied by Oscar E. Duplan, secretary of 
the Mexican Embassy to Washington, whose fluent 
command of both English and Spanish makes him 
an admirable interpreter. 

Following the custom of Spanish-American 
countries, I had submitted, with my request for an 
[71] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

interview, a series of written questions. Mr. Car- 
ranza said that he had read these questions, and 
would dictate replies which would be sent to me 
later, but that he was prepared to discuss some of 
the matters thus brought to his attention, or to give 
any other information that might be deemed useful 
in promoting a good understanding between the 
American and Mexican peoples. 

This good understanding, I ventured to suggest, 
had often been imperilled by deliberate misrepre- 
sentation of fact in the sensational press of both 
countries, to which the President assented. He be- 
lieved, however, that the purpose of these publica- 
tions was so well understood in the United States 
that their power to injure either a nation or an in- 
dividual was practically gone. In explanation of 
the Mexican Government's toleration of a yellow 
press within its own territory, he said that he made 
it a rule to read every attack published against his 
administration, and to act upon any suggestion 
made for the improvement of any branch of the 
Government. Merely personal attacks against the 
President he had ceased to read, but if he sup- 
pressed personal criticism directed against himself 
it probably would have the effect of ending criticism 
of his Administration, which he regarded as too 
valuable to be dispensed with. I have reproduced 
this much of the conversation relating to the press 
because it amplifies Mr. Carranza's views on this 

[72] 



INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA 

subject as expressed in the formal questions and 
answers, which follow: 

"I assume, Mr. President, that whatever mis- 
understandings have existed between your Govern- 
ment and that of the United States have been cleared 
up; that whatever differences remain will be 
speedily adjusted through diplomatic channels to 
the mutual satisfaction of both countries. My 
readers are profoundly interested in the reconstruc- 
tion, in the future of Mexico, and I am sure that 
they desire the bonds of friendship strengthened 
between our peoples. What proof does Mexico 
desire of this increased cordiality of sentiment on 
our part?" 

"Our relations with the United States are better 
each day, because having passed through the period 
of the war, the American people are now convinced 
that we remained actually neutral during an epoch 
when it would not have been to Mexico's advantage 
to enter the world war. The best proof of friend- 
ship the United States can give us in the future 
would be to establish complete freedom of com- 
merce and communications with us, and to follow 
a policy of non-intervention in our internal affairs, 
and, on the part of the American Government, to 
avoid occasions of friction by exercising greater 
caution in making representations or claims on be- 
half of foreign citizens residing in Mexico." 

"During a brief sojourn in this beautiful country 
[73] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

I have heard from many sources of the policy of 
conciliation your Administration is putting into 
effect. I have witnessed the joy of certain Mexi- 
cans at one time suspected of designs against the 
Constitutionalist Goverriment on being permitted to 
return home after years of exile. Has the time 
come when a general amnesty may be declared 
safely for all except the most dangerous characters 
among the exiles?" 

"There are a number of Mexicans who aban- 
doned their country and remain in exile without 
other reason than vague apprehensions, as they 
were not expelled from the country by the Mexican 
Government. All of these Mexicans have the per- 
mission of the Government to return. Some of the 
Government's political enemies have also been re- 
turning from time to time, after having manifested 
a strong determination not to take part in plots or 
conspiracies, and to keep the peace in all respects. 
Those who are responsible seriously for crimes 
committed in Mexico have no intention of returning. 
There is no thought of enacting a law of general 
amnesty until after the next elections have taken 
place." 

"Given the moral support of the United States 
Government, and unrestricted access to Mexico for 
the purchase of guns and ammunition in our mar- 
kets, how long would it take your Administration 

[74] 



INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA 

to rid Mexico of the skulking bandits who still infest 
isolated districts?" 

"Assuming that complete freedom in the ac- 
quisition of arms could be counted upon, no help 
from the United States would be needed beyond a 
vigilance on the American border that would pre- 
vent the organization of parties of rebels and hinder 
them from obtaining supplies to be used after- 
wards in Mexico. Under such an understanding 
Mexico would be thoroughly pacified by the end of 
the current presidential term. But to achieve this, 
maintenance of an army will be required at the 
approximate annual expense of 150,000,000 pesos. 
Neither the time nor the money involved will seem 
too much if compared, for example, with the years 
and dollars expended by the United States in the 
pacification of the Philippines." (Note: Mr. Car- 
ranza's term expires December 1, 1920. The 
figures in pesos equal $75,000,000.) 

"Financial circles in the United States are keenly 
interested in the recent visit of Senor Nieto, of your 
treasury department, and in the proposed visit to 
Mexico of a group of Anglo-French-American 
bankers, regarding a proposed loan to Mexico. I 
can see the need of reconstruction and of public 
improvements in many directions, especially in the 
matter of railways and the stabilization of foreign 
loans. On the other hand, I have been told the 
[75] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

Federal revenues have largely increased within the 
last twelve months, and that Mexico, having 
weathered the revolution without financial aid from 
foreign sources, is not incapable of continuing her 
development through internal resources. May I 
ask frankly if your Administration really desires 
a foreign loan, and if so, of what amount and for 
what purposes?" 

"Mexico really believes that she does not need, 
and therefore does not wish to obtain a loan to cover 
official expenses, as we hope to be able to meet all 
outlay from our own resources, handled with 
economy and efficiency. Naturally, we should be 
glad to come to some agreement with our creditors 
whereby we should be allowed to resume the pay- 
ment of interest on an equitable basis. We do not 
wish to promise blindly terms that we cannot fulfil, 
and hope to convince our creditors that any agree- 
ment must be based on Mexico's actual possibilities. 
All the economic and financial necessities of Mexico 
will be resolved when the flow of capital returns to 
its natural channel, much that is Mexican having 
been diverted to the United States, and when new 
capital is attracted to Mexico by the good oppor- 
tunities for investment undoubtedly to be found 
here. The Mexican Government is disposed to give 
true, effective, and equal protection to all capital 
invested here, without either promising preferences 
and privileges to foreign capitalists, or creating 
[76] 



INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA 

unfavourable conditions among its own people. 
Knowledge of this attitude alone will, we hope, re- 
sult in a great many investments being made here." 

"Cuba will sell sugar to the United States this 
year to the value of $450,000,000, and tobacco to 
the value of $200,000,000. She will retain a 
handsome balance after having spent in the United 
States perhaps $500,000,000 for machinery and 
supplies. Under normal conditions in Mexico, 
commerce between our countries ought to be five 
times as great. What can be done at this time to 
develop our industrial and commercial relations?" 

"The best method of improving relations be- 
tween the two countries is one which is already in 
operation; that is to say, facilitating and encourag- 
ing visits to Mexico from professional and business 
men in the United States, with journeys by the cor- 
responding classes in Mexico to the United States, 
by means of which the people of both countries will 
acquire a better knowledge of each other. At pres- 
ent mere official relations between countries are of 
a very secondary importance when compared with 
those established by direct contact between profes- 
sional and business men, merchants, manufacturers, 
students, and workmen." 

"I am aware of the interest the President of the 
United States of Mexico has manifested in agri- 
cultural developments, and of those advantages of 
climate which permit Mexicans to cultivate with sue- 
[77] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

cess the products of every zone; and I should be 
glad to know what may be expected in the way of 
irrigation and scientific land culture as a result of 
the impetus given under your direction by the De- 
partment of Agriculture." 

"Mexico must make a great effort to open up all 
the land that can now be cultivated, and our agri- 
cultural problem involves the education of the rural 
population, and the establishment of a system 
adequate to our conditions of agricultural credits 
(Credito Agricola Refaccionario) that will free the 
farmers from the ancient system of mortgage 
loans." 

"Education of the masses is one of the most 
serious problems of republican government. In 
my country the ignorant voter is a menace. In 
some Spanish-American countries he is a danger. 
What plans are being made for primary education, 
and for a graded course of instruction leading to 
the technical schools, now that Mexico has assumed 
control of secular education?" 

"The nation has come to the conclusion that the 
chief effort that must be made in the direction of 
education shall be a considerable expansion of 
primary education, which at present is under the 
direction of the municipal authorities. Both the 
Federal and State Governments are trying to assist 
in the development of technical, agricultural, and 
industrial education, giving less attention to the 

[78] 



INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA 

universities and leaving them to private initiative. 
Meantime the Government prefers to give its best 
efforts to the extension of primary education." 

"In our country as in yours freedom of the press 
is a constitutional guarantee, but with us the rights 
of individuals are safeguarded by statutory re- 
strictions. In dealing with public matters I find 
at home as in Mexico a tendency to construe liberty 
as license. Allow me to quote your own words at 
a critical time in Mexico, because they precisely 
describe conditions in the United States during a 
period of trial, in regard to the newspapers of 
Mexico : 

" 'It is well known that the abuse of liberty of 
speech and of the press in times past contributed 
importantly toward weakening the stability and 
prestige of the legitimate Government of the Re- 
public, and to aid and encourage the audacity of 
its enemies.' 

"You are aware, Mr. President, that Mexico's 
worst newspaper enemies in the United States have 
also been the worst enemies of the United States. 
Shall these discredited publications be permitted 
to foment new misunderstandings between the Mexi- 
can and the American peoples? Or have they lost 
their power to do evil, now that their motives are 
clear to all?" 

"At present any attempt to restrain the abuses of 
the yellow press would be interpreted as weakness 
[79] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

on the part of the Government, and as dread of the 
free discussion of its acts. Although I realize that 
the attitude of many small newspapers is uncalled 
for and unjust, the Government has decided to take 
no steps to suppress them, unless they invite re- 
bellion and assist with their propaganda those who 
would overthrow public order. When abuses of 
the yellow press reach a danger point, society will 
demand the enactment of laws by the legislative 
power that will safeguard private life and personal 
reputation by providing for the punishment of those 
responsible." 

The only question, either oral or written, to 
which the President declined a response was that 
relating to petroleum. Having been officially in- 
formed that the interpretation of Article 27 of the 
new Mexican constitution, which appears to con- 
fiscate oil properties, was still a matter of contro- 
versy between the governments of Mexico and the 
United States, I offered to transmit any statement 
he might care to make on this subject. 

Mr. Carranza said that, having submitted to the 
Mexican congress a law intended to clarify this 
situation, until the congress had taken action, it 
would not be proper for him to discuss it. 

I had also been officially informed of a rumour 
that, notwithstanding the clause in the new consti- 
tution making the President of the United States of 
Mexico ineligible for re-election under any circum- 

[80] 



INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA 

stances, Mr. Carranza's supporters might seek to 
continue him in power by means of an amendment 
to the fundamental law. 

Mr. Carranza left no doubt in my mind on this 
point. Mexico, he said, had never really enjoyed a 
democratic government in the old days, a govern- 
ment with free elections at which the people could 
choose their chief magistrate. He regarded the 
law which prohibited a president from succeeding 
himself as a wise and necessary safeguard, if the 
people were ever to learn the means of self-govern- 
ment. 

So ended my first meeting with a man who has 
left with me an impression of kindliness, courage, 
and intelligence. 



[81] 



CHAPTER FOUR: A PRESIDENTIAL 
PROGRESS 

There had been no attempt on the part of Mexican 
officials during my visit to conceal the ravages of 
the revolution. On the contrary I was invited to 
visit the districts in Morelos and elsewhere which 
suffered most from civil war in order to see the 
extent of reconstruction work necessary, and was 
disposed to do so until an inspection of the war 
photographs exhibited by the Alliance Frangaise 
in Mexico City convinced me that the world might 
be weary of horrors. The waste of Belgium and 
northern France has been superlative. Mexican 
officials admitted that these scenes could not, for- 
tunately, be duplicated in their country, and it was 
with a grateful sense of relief that I accepted Presi- 
dent Carranza's invitation to accompany him to 
Guadalajara as an alternative, knowing that my last 
days in the republic would be spent in pleasant 
places, with congenial people, and under conditions 
which would be most favourable to the study of the 
personnel of the Mexican Government. 

The presidential special consisted of six 
thoroughly modem coaches. Mr. Carranza's own 
car was that built by the Pullman company for 

[82] 



A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS 

General Porfirio Diaz. Thoroughly renovated in- 
side and out, it looked like new, and contained every 
convenience of more recent invention. In order 
that the observation platform might be utilized, this 
car was the last. Next to it was an office car, be- 
yond that a sleeper, then a baggage car, and finally 
the private car Coahuila, in which a group of 
Amercan newspaper men found excellent accommo- 
dations. The decorations of the presidential sec- 
tion were uniform, the President's own car bearing 
the Mexican arms in colours on a large shield. In 
addition to this train, however, was another in which 
a car was reserved for correspondents of the prin- 
cipal Mexican dailies, flats on which were carried 
automobiles, box cars for horses and freight cars 
and ordinary day coaches converted into temporary 
quarters for a battalion of the presidential guard 
and its band. 

It was apparent from the start that at least three 
of the best chefs de cuisine in Mexico were aboard 
and that there was something of a spirit of rivalry 
between them as to which should set the best table, 
a competitive instinct much stimulated by the fre- 
quency with which dinner visits were exchanged. 

Clearly the affair was looked upon as a prolonged 
picnic, except by officials intimately associated with 
the presidential household. They knew what to 
expect, and were not, therefore, disappointed to 
find that President Carranza could find as many 
[83] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

working hours in the day on train as in Mexico 
City. The others were made to feel that as guests 
of the chief magistrate they were free to come and 
go, and to amuse themselves as they pleased, at- 
tendance being expected, however, at the more im- 
portant public functions. There was a delightful 
absence of formality, but always an abundance 
of that exquisite courtesy for which the Mexican 
is distinguished, even among Spanish Americans. 
In the presidential party were Pastor Roauix, 
secretary of the department of agriculture, General 
Candido Aguilar, chief of the military operations 
in Vera Cruz, son-in-law of the President, and 
representative of his hospitality on the President's 
car; General Juan Barragan, chief of the presi- 
dential general staff, and probably the handsomest 
man in Mexico; Pedro Gil Farias, former news- 
paperman and private secretary to the President; 
Francisco M. Gonzales, controller general of the 
treasury; Manuel Amaya, first introducer of am- 
bassadors; Mario Mendez, director general of tele- 
graphs; General Heriberto Hara, minister designate 
to Cuba; Ernesto Perusquia, governor of Queretaro; 
Aurelio Gonzales, governor of Aguascalientes; J. 
Felipe Vaile, governor of Colima; Pascual Ortiz 
Rubio, governor of Michoacan; Col. Paulino 
Pontes, director of the Mexican railways; Dr. J. 
Aleman Perez, the President's physician; Ernesto 
Garza Perez, under secretary for foreign relations; 

[84] 



A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS 

Oscar Duplan, second secretary of the Mexican 
legation in Washington, and a number of the 
younger officers of the army. 

Aguirre Berlanga, secretary of Gobernacion, and 
first minister, and Luis Cabrera, financial advisor 
to the President were left behind "to sit on the lid" 
in the capital, but later joined the presidential 
party, and before the return to Mexico Mr. Cabrera 
had resumed his post as secretary of the treasury. 

The wife of the governor of Colima was the only 
woman on the train during the greater part of the 
time, but there was a constant ebb and flow of 
visitors of an official character from day to day. 

The rate of progress maintained was suited to the 
taste of Mr. Carranza, and although the President 
is an excellent horseman, so much at home in the 
saddle that his friends dread the suggestion of a 
horseback ride, never knowing when it will end, or 
how fast a pace the President may set, he prefers a 
moderate speed when travelling by rail and in- 
variably, almost, caused the train to be stopped at 
meal times. There were hours when one might 
have walked beside the train, and it was unusual 
for a twenty-mile rate to be exceeded. Moreover, 
as the President had not passed over the road to 
Guadalajara for more than two years, there were 
little receptions at every way station. Sometimes 
there would be songs by the school children, some- 
times music by a military band, but invariably there 
[85] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

was a gathering of the local notables, with a fringe 
of peon labourers in the background, and still 
further back, the women and children. And in- 
variably the President was received with en- 
thusiasm. 

"It's quite different from the reception accorded 
Mr. Carranza the last time we came over this route," 
said one gentleman in the party. "Then there 
were crowds, as you see today, but the motive was 
curiosity. They were not sure that the First Chief 
would make a success of things, and especially, 
they were not sure what the First Chief would do for 
them. They were polite, but not deeply concerned, 
either at our coming or our going. Now, as you 
see, we are made to feel everywhere that we are 
among friends. The revolution has succeeded, and 
Mr. Carranza's attitude toward the people is no 
longer a matter of doubt." 

Mr. Carranza's attitude toward the people was, 
in fact, the occasion of a certain amount of alarm 
to some of us. We would crawl into some gaily 
decorated station, and after the national hymn, 
with which the train was always saluted, Mr. Car- 
ranza would sometimes receive a few of the local 
officials in his car, but would then descend for a 
little walk up and down the tracks, and in the course 
of this walk, none was so humble as to escape his 
notice, or too obscure to receive a pleasant saluta- 
tion. The President was ready to talk with any 

[86] 



A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS 

peon who had anything to say, and there were 
hundreds of opportunities for attacks upon his 
person during these promenades. I ventured to 
speak to one of the ofRcials about this carelessness 
in not watching over the President's safety. 

"No one would think of injuring Mr. Carranza," 
said one of his household, "and besides he will not 
permit us to interfere in these matters. What do 
you think would happen to any man who attacked 
him?" 

At any rate no one did attack him, but those of 
us who remembered the fate of certain American 
presidents could not help feeling that, however de- 
lightful the absence of ceremony, additional pre- 
cautions by the secret service would have added 
to the comfort of these receptions. 

The President while on this journey began his 
day's work at sunrise, spent several hours in going 
through his correspondence, and held conferences 
with the various officials on board in regard to their 
departments. He liked to see his guests daily, and 
apparently apportioned his time with such accuracy 
that no one could feel slighted or neglected. In 
conversation he is deliberate rather than slow, taking 
advantage of the presence of an interpreter, when 
talking with foreigners, to weigh his utterances 
carefully, but showing by his manner complete com- 
prehension of what is said to him before the trans- 
lation had been completed. In a word, Mr. Car- 
[87] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

ranza understands English, and has been known to 
speak it on occasion, and reads it easily. His use 
of an interpreter is one of those little bits of hum- 
bug to which visitors in Spanish American capitals 
are quite accustomed. I have not heard, however, 
that he ever carried his pretence of ignorance to the 
extent that so irritated a recent French diplomatic 
representative in Mexico. 

Assuming that an interpreter was necessary, the 
Frenchman called on one of the members of the 
cabinet, was politely received, and entered upon 
his very delicate negotiations at once. There were 
half a dozen exchanges of visits leading to nothing, 
but finally things came to a show down, and the 
Frenchman lost. Details of an agreement were 
reached, and a memorandum drawn, but when it 
came to the exchange of signatures, the Frenchman 
who was anxious to return home, called upon the 
minister without his interpreter. The man was 
ill, he explained in broken Spanish, and he begged 
that the minister would be kind enough to provide 
an interpreter from his own staff. 

"It is not essential," said the minister in excel- 
lent French, "for it will afford me great pleasure 
to converse with you in your own tongue, if you 
desire it." 

The Frenchman has never forgiven the minister, 
and yet the minister was entirely within his rights. 

Possibly some indiscreet things may have passed 
[88] 



A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS 

between the diplomat and his interpreter, as when 
a newly arrived American asked a friend who had 
been in Mexico several years to call on a landlord 
with whom he wished to arrange a lease on a house. 
They assumed that the landlord did not understand 
English, and discussed various stages of the bar- 
gaining freely. The would-be tenant had picked 
out a house for which he was willing to pay $150 
a month, although he admitted that it was easily 
worth $200. The landlord thereupon exacted a 
long lease at $175, splitting the difference exactly, 
and when the transaction was complete, wished his 
visitors good-bye in English. 

To return to Mr. Carranza, one chief char- 
acteristic of the man is frankness. In the course of 
many conversations with him while on this journey, 
I found that he would either answer a question in 
detail, or decline to answer it at all. Thus when I 
suggested that if he wished to say anything about 
the petroleum situation or rather certain phrases of 
it which had been discussed in the press, he repeated 
that having sent a petroleum law to congress in 
which these matters were covered, he could not dis- 
cuss them until congress had acted. When the 
Japanese concessions were filling first pages in the 
Mexican papers, he was unwilling to say anything, 
because the text of the American communication on 
this subject had not reached him. 

I found, however, that he was deeply interested 
[89] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

in some of the problems with which we are con- 
fronted in the United States, and that he could turn 
interviewer upon occasion himself. 

Mr. Carranza feels that the one great problem in 
America for some years to come will be the ad- 
justment of relations between labour and capital. 
He regards the increasing number of strikes, the 
Bolshevik propaganda, the I. W. W. agitations as 
symptoms of unrest which, if neglected, may lead 
to grave danger. 

The danger may be averted, Mr. Carranza be- 
lieves, by conciliatory action and wise legislation, 
but if a policy of repression is adopted, he feels 
that it will have merely a temporary effect. And 
the adjustment of the relations between capital and 
labour seems to him to be more important just now 
than the formulation of a world policy. 

"The time to establish a League of Nations is 
after, not before the signature of the peace treaty," 
Mr. Carranza said in the course of one of these in- 
formal conversations. "On the conclusion of a 
real peace it will be possible to organize such a 
league embracing all the nations of the earth, and 
only such a league can have real value." 

The exclusion of Mexico from the conferences in 
Paris had been deeply resented by the Mexican 
press, and had been regarded by certain of the 
officials as an insult to the nation. Mr. Carranza, 
however, had kept silence on the subject, and it was 

[90] 



A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS 

not until the second day of the journey that he saw 
fit to refer to the matter at all. Then it was in a 
playful way, for the President enjoys a joke as well 
as the next man, even at his own expense. 

The talk had drifted to the national American 
card game, poker, which is highly popular in 
Mexico. Mr. Carranza commented that it was an 
excellent game, and that he had been fond of it. 

I said that I fancied the President had played 
a pretty good game in his time, for in most of 
the diplomatic exchanges with other countries 
he had shown a complete mastery of the art of bluf- 
fing, by which I meant that when it came to an actual 
call, he always had the cards, and was thus able 
from time to time to rake in a good pot with a four- 
flush, or a small pair. 

Mr. Carranza seemed amused at this notion, and 
remarked that if he had unconsciously built up that 
sort of a reputation, it might account for the action 
of the peace conferees in shutting him out of the 
game in Paris. 

Mr. Carranza had admitted in the course of a 
long talk that he considered himself responsible for 
the conduct of every branch of the executive power, 
and that he thought it his duty to supervise the work 
of each department, and to exert direct authority in 
case anything went wrong. This feeling of re- 
sponsibility, coupled with the necessity of building 
up a competent set of public servants who could be 
[91] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

relied upon to carry out the principles of the revo- 
lution after the retirement of the present chief of 
state, is the explanation of so many young men 
holding high office. 

Travelling in the leisurely way indicated, we 
were four days in reaching Guadalajara, one of die 
largest cities of the republic, and held by many to 
be the most beautiful, surpassing even the capital. 
There was a vast crowd at the station to welcome 
the President, and to accompany him to the newly 
opened hotel, St. Francis, which was to be the head- 
quarters of the presidential party. The St. 
Francis, it may be noted in passing, would be 
a credit to New York, both as to architecture, 
convenience and service, a statement which would 
not be true of any other hotel I have seen 
in Mexico. The higher officers of state being pro- 
vided for at St, Francis, other members of the party 
were made comfortable at the Hotel Fenix, and a 
round of festivities began on Saturday. 

There was a parade of school children in honour 
of the President in the morning. Small girls were 
arrayed in the costume of the Mexican Red Cross, 
and the boys were, of course, scouts. There must 
have been five thousand youngsters in line, making 
a most creditable showing. 

In the afternoon there was an elaborate dinner 
at the Country Club, offered by the municipal 
councillors in honour of the President, with covers 

[92] 



A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS 

>^— ^— — — —ii— — ^— ^— ^— ^— — — — 

for at least 1200. There were seven meat courses, 
five kinds of wine, and best of all, but one speech. 

The following day was without a formal pro- 
gram, most of the presidential guests taking ad- 
vantage of the opportunity to visit Lake Chapala, 
the greatest of the Mexican lakes, having a length 
of seventy miles, and a breadth in places of nearly 
thirty. In the evening there was a literary tea, 
followed by dancing, which was attended by Mr. 
Carranza and his entire entourage. 

The entertainment was held in a newly completed 
public school, built of white stone and in the airy 
style suited to a climate which knows no winter. 
A string quartette played an early piece of Men- 
delssohn's; there were original verses by one 
Spanish and two Mexican poets, and operatic 
selections by an excellent baritone and a young 
soprano. Tea was then served at small tables, with 
sandwiches, salads, ices, etc., and the floor was then 
cleared for the dancers. 

Monday the President and his guests resumed 
their places on train, and a start was made for 
Cocula, some thirty kilometers to the west, where 
the new road which will ultimately open up the 
Pacific port of Chamela to inland commerce now 
ends. Arriving late in the afternoon, the President 
laid the corner stone of the terminal building, and 
the ceremonies were at an end. Dinner followed 
at a hacienda, after an inspection of Cocula, and a 
[93] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

dance followed which lasted late into the night. 
It had been expected that Mr. Carranza would re- 
turn to his car before night-fall, but the festivities 
having been prolonged until evening, bonfires were 
lighted along the entire stretch of road between the 
town and the railway with rather a startling effect. 

The return to Mexico City was made without in- 
cident, but with the customary stops along the route, 
varied by little excursions into the nearby country- 
side. 

The region traversed in this presidential junket 
is the richest of the central Mexican plateau. 
From the higher levels of the Valley of Mexico we 
passed gradually to the lower altitude and warmer 
climate of the lake district, through lands abound- 
ingly fertile, and capable of enormous yield. The 
President, himself a planter in his younger days, 
was sufficiently interested in a great dairy to make 
a personal inspection. He found a place devoted 
to the manufacture of cooking cheese in which 
8,000 cows are milked daily. He also visited the 
irrigation plant at Chapala, realizing as thoroughly 
as the agricultural experts who accompanied him, 
that the most arid part of Mexico would bloom like 
a garden, were irrigation possible. 

To those of us who were merely sojourners in the 
land, there were some impressive sights to which 
no reference has thus far been made. 

Thus there was the battlefield at Celaya, at which 
[94] 



A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS 

fc«— ^— ^-^— -— — ^^^^— ^™ 

Villa's army of 40,000 men was crushingly de- 
feated by General Obregon, with half as many 
troops. The bandit who still terrorizes part of the 
northern border never recovered from this blow, 
which gave the Carranza forces undisputed pos- 
session of the greater part of the republic. 

Then there was the little chapel which may be 
seen from the train at Queretaro, but which is worth 
a closer inspection, erected by the Austrian gov- 
ernment in memory of the Archduke Maximilian, 
for some years Emperor of Mexico. Queretaro 
in an old fashioned Spanish town lying in a cup- 
shaped depression in the hills, and once Maximilian 
had been driven within it by the republican army, 
his fate was sealed. There could be no escape 
from the doom he met with his faithful lieutenants, 
Miramon and Mejia. Within the chapel are three 
stones marking the spot where these men stood to 
receive the bullets of a firing squad. This monu- 
ment to an unfortunate Hapsburg prince, serves 
also, it seems to me, to point to the futility of 
foreign intervention in this ancient land. 

At La Barca there were two things to be seen 
that some of us are not likely to forget. One was 
a vast residence fronting on the Plaza in which the 
main patio displayed unique mural paintings 
representing scenes during the French occupation. 
The other was a richly fitted up chapel in the prin- 
cipal church. 

[95] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

Seeing a recumbent figure on a cot bed, we 
entered this chapel, and a small boy drew down the 
sheet which covered it to the chin. It was a life 
size wooden effigy of Our Lady, neither better nor 
worse than the average from the artistic point of 
view, but which possessed unusual interest from 
the fact that once a year it arose from its couch and 
talked. 

Returning to Queretaro after having spent eight 
days with the presidential party, I made my 
acknowledgements to Mr. Carranza and said good- 
bye to his agreeable entourage, taking advantage of 
the special train on which Col. Fontes, director of 
the railways, was returning to Mexico City, in order 
not to miss connections for my return to New York. 

There was a decided contrast between the speed 
of the presidential train and that of the director of 
railways, so great that I could not help remark- 
ing it. 

"The reason is simple," said Col. Fontes. "We 
must be careful about Mr. Carranza when he is on 
the road. He would be a difficult man to replace. 
A railway man can afford to take chances." 



[96] 



CHAPTER FIVE: MEXICO'S NEXT 
PRESIDENT 

The next president of the United States of 
Mexico will be a Man on Horseback. That's rather 
vague, for the proportion of Mexicans who don't 
ride about equals that of Hawaiians who don't 
swim. But it's quite as far as any prophet can go 
who knows that what he may write this year may be 
used against him next year. 

However, it is quite certain that his name won't 
be Carranza. Don Venustiano will be content, ac- 
cording to his own words, in assuring a free election 
to the Mexican people, and even if he were disposed 
to be a candidate again, the new constitution of 
1917 provides, Article 83: 

"The President shall enter upon the duties of his 
office on the first day of December, shall serve four 
years and shall never be re-elected." 

Reference to the fundamental law facilitates the 
process of elimination. No one can be President 
who is not a Mexican by birth, in full enjoyment 
of his rights, and the son of parents who are Mexi- 
can by birth. He must not be under thirty-five 
years old, nor have been absent from his country 
during the entire year prior to the election. 
[97] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

Millions of men could qualify under those re- 
strictions, but here is a constitutional "don't list" 
which brings the number of candidates down to a 
mere handful: 

"He shall not belong to the ecclesiastical state nor 
be a minister of any religious creed. 

"In the event of belonging to the army, he shall 
have retired from active service 90 days immedi- 
ately prior to the election. 

"He shall not have taken part, directly or in- 
directly, in any uprising, riot or military coup." 

At the last election, held March 11, 1916, Presi- 
dent Carranza, then first chief of the revolution, 
received 797,305 votes of the total of 812,928, the 
remainder going to other leaders of the Constitu- 
tionalists, including General Gonzalez, Obregon and 
Alvarado. 

It is not surprising to find, therefore, that these 
soldiers are among the foremost candidates for the 
next election, although by no means the only ones. 
A list which passed muster as complete, ran 
through the Mexican newspapers recently, and in- 
troduced a number of civilians, more or less known 
outside their own country : 

General Alvaro Obregon 

General Pablo Gonzalez 

General Salvador Alvarado 

General Manuel M. Dieguez 

Licenciado Luis Cabrera 
[98] 



MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT 

Licenciado Manuel Aguirre Berlanga 
Ingeniero Felix F. Palavicini 

It may as well be explained that in Mexico and 
in most Spanish-speaking countries, it is customary 
to prefix the professional title to a man's name, if 
he has one, and that "licenciado" means lawyer, and 
"ingeniero" an engineer. 

Even this small list can be subjected to the same 
process of elimination, and to discuss the per- 
sonality of the candidates may have the effect of a 
"close-up" on some of the gentlemen conspicuously 
identified with the Carranza Administration. 

Don Luis Cabrera assured me, when I last talked 
with him, that his real ambition in life was to turn 
haciendado. He is country bred, having been bom 
some forty-three years ago in a village in the 
mountains of Puebla, and having acquired the 
ownership of a small farm or hacienda, is eager 
to experiment in intensive agriculture. 

At present Sr. Cabrera is secretary of the 
treasury, an office he has filled before, and with 
such shrewdness as to justify the designation be- 
stowed upon him by the American colony in Mexico, 
where he is referred to as "the Brains of the Revo- 
lution." 

Sr. Cabrera supported himself while studying 
law by writing for the newspapers, and suggesting 
ideas for cartoons. He was one of the first news- 
papermen to attack the Diaz regime, notwithstand* 
[99] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

ing which he made a success in the law before turn- 
ing to politics. Having been a congressman in 
Madero's time, he served as a diplomatic agent for 
Mr. Carranza, both in the United States, and 
throughout Central and South America, and then, as 
ithe President's confidential friend, took a leading 
part in the reconstruction work now underway in 
many parts of the republic. 

Forced by circumstances into the law, which he 
detests, Sr. Cabrera is by instinct a literary man. 
He speaks French as well as he does Spanish, and 
converses fluently in English, German, and several 
of the Mexican Indian tongues. A delightful com- 
panion and an indefatigable worker, he is extremely 
radical in his political views, and no one who has 
heard his keen flow of wit and sarcasm would be- 
lieve him capable of the smooth and flowing new 
version of "The Song of Songs." He treats this 
love poem as a love poem, and collates in an ap- 
pendix the Vulgate, the Septuagint, the King 
James's Version and Luther's Bible with the Hebrew 
text when he wishes to justify a departure from the 
accepted translation. When you add that Sr. 
Cabrera's favourite recreations when he had more 
leisure were horseback riding, duck-shooting and 
playing poker, you only make more of a puzzle of 
a many-sided character. Having lost his father 
and two brothers in the revolution, and given it the 
ten best years of his life, Sr. Cabrera's friends feel 
[100] 



MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT 

that he has a right to quit the game if he wishes to. 

Sr. Berlanga, at present minister of Gobemacion, 
a post which pretty nearly carries the rank of prime 
minister, is frankly more ambitious. He is be- 
lieved to have been pro-German during the war, and 
in fact, looks more like a German than a Spaniard, 
having light hair and blue eyes with a ruddy com- 
plexion. As a candidate he just barely gets by the 
age-limit, but then the Carranza Administration is 
a Government of Young Men, and his youth is by no 
means conspicuous, General Juan Barragan, chief 
of the general staff being only 28. 

Notwithstanding his youth, Sr. Berlanga has had 
much experience as an official. He explained to 
me one day that General Carranza ever had his eye 
open for young men of promise, knowing that the 
future of Mexico depended upon their develop- 
ment. 

"The General tries always to accustom his subor- 
dinates to responsibility," he continued. "He will 
appoint a young lawyer to a minor judgeship, and 
watch his decisions carefully. Then he may shift 
him into municipal administration, and if he 
makes good there, raise him higher in the ad- 
ministrative scale, even encourage him to become 
a candidate for governor. Then he may ask him 
to accept a sub-secretaryship in one of the de- 
partments, which may be followed by quick pro- 
motion to cabinet rank. 

[101] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

"General Carranza cannot tolerate stupidity, dis- 
honesty or laziness, and men afflicted with these 
faults do not last long under him. On the other 
hand, he is perfectly willing to overlook a failure, 
if he believes in his man, and will always give him 
a second chance on some other job." 

Consciously, or not, I think Sr. Berlanga was 
autobiographical in this discourse upon el Seiior 
Presidente; which I give because it explains the 
rapid rise of more than one talented young Mexican. 

Sr. Berlanga is perhaps the strongest candidate 
among the civilians now entered in the presidential 
stakes. He is widely known as the author of 
"Genesis de la Revolucion Mexicana," a title which 
does not seem to need translation, and is personally 
very popular. It has been his duty as cabinet 
minister in charge of what corresponds to our de- 
partment of the interior to enforce the church laws, 
and if a Catholic party re-appeared on the eve of 
the election, it probably would oppose him. Other- 
wise he might have a good chance, for the allied 
black list has been abolished, and nobody in Mexico 
cares whether a man was pro-German during the 
war or not. 

Sr. Palavicini's candidacy was not taken 
seriously when I was in Mexico last spring; not 
that he lacks ability or a following, but rather be- 
cause of these facts — combined with his present 
occupation. An engineer by profession, he is a 
[102] 



MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT 

newspaper man by preference, and as such, guides 
the fortunes of El Universal, one of the three best 
papers in the Mexican republic. In the course of 
a very few years, especially in Spanish American 
countries, the average editor cracks too many heads 
to be able to run for office. He was minister of 
public instruction in the revolutionary government, 
spent some months in exile in New York, and took 
back with him some rather progressive journalistic 
ideas. He was a leader of pro-Ally sentiment 
during the war, and thoroughly exposed German 
propaganda at a time when Mexico was supposedly 
"neutral in thought as well as in action." 

Of the military candidates the one best known to 
Americans is General Obregon, who toured this 
country not long ago on a mission of conciliation. 
It was Obregon, who, with 20,000 men, routed an 
army of 40,000 at Celaya, commanded in person 
by Francisco Villa and seconded by Felipe Angeles. 
The story as related to me by an American news- 
paperman who was present, may be given briefly. 
Obregon, knowing himself outnumbered, formed 
his men in a hollow square and dug in. Villa 
feinted an attack on one corner of this square, 
whereupon Obregon threw all his machine guns 
and field pieces to the opposite corner. When Villa 
opened his real attack with a cavalry charge, 
Obregon's shrewd guess enabled him to mow down 
men and horses alike. Four times Villa charged 
[103] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

the same objective, each time meeting heavy loss. 
Then, at four o'clock, Obregon found his ammuni- 
tion exhausted, and expected that another charge 
would destroy his command. Just then a supply 
train came in from Mexico City. Villa's fifth 
charge was repulsed, the Carranza forces took the 
initiative, and from the commander of an army of 
40,000 well armed men. Villa had become a bandit 
again. 

Angeles, the story goes, had advised Villa not to 
give battle, but to fall back on Guadalajara, a rich 
city where much loot could be secured, but Villa, 
eager to again establish himself in Mexico City, and 
knowing that he could never get together or hold so 
large an army, plunged into battle. 

After Celaya, General Obregon became secretary 
of war in the revolutionary government of General 
Carranza, and when this merged into the present 
Constitutionalist regime. General Obregon retired 
to his hacienda in western Mexico, and has re- 
mained out of public life ever since. 

His platform, widely published throughout 
Mexico, endorses the constitution of 1917, which 
he pledges himself to enforce, and he guarantees 
equal justice and privileges to Mexicans and 
foreigners alike. 

General Pablo Gonzales, who has figured in the 
news recently as one of the Constitutionalist officers 
commanding troops sent against Villa, was a power- 
[104] 



MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT 

ful factor in the overthrow of Huerta. He drove 
the Huerta forces out of the northeastern part of 
Mexico, and by the capture of Tampico, made the 
collapse of that leader's power inevitable. More 
recently he was charged with the pacification of the 
State of Morelos, the last stronghold of Emiliano 
Zapata. An illiterate but resourceful leader of the 
Villa type, Zapata fought against Huerta, but de- 
clined to recognize General Carranza as First Chief 
of the revolution. For a time his sway extended 
over several of the southern states, but while an 
adept at guerilla warfare, he had none of the qual- 
ities of a statesman. Last winter General Gonzales 
led a small force into Morelos, destroyed the Za- 
patista organization, and with the death of Zapata 
in April, the pacification of that state was complete. 
What Huerta could not accomplish with 30,000 
men armed with cannon and machine guns, Gon- 
zales achieved with a force one-tenth as large. In 
political feeling, there probably isn't much dif- 
ference between General Gonzales and President 
Carranza. 

General Alvarado is at once the richest and the 
most radical of the military candidates. A major 
in command of 400 men in the Yaqui region, he 
joined forces with Obregon, then a lieutenant- 
colonel, in the revolt against Huerta, and in the 
early days of the revolution was second in command 
to Obregon. His most important recent task has 
[105] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

been in the reconstruction of Yucatan, the State 
which exports most of the world's supply of hen- 
nequin. General Alvarado is accredited with an 
amusing but highly effective piece of strategy 
during the Battle of Santa Maria. The Huerta 
troops had been driven back from their water sup- 
ply, and fought with the utmost desperation to re- 
gain their position. There was hand to hand fight- 
ing for nearly twenty-four hours, at the end of 
which time. General Alvarado drove the Huerta 
troops into a watermelon field, and the men re- 
fused to fight. 

Since his retirement from the army. General 
Alvarado has shown a strong interest in journalism, 
and is now the proprietor of a new daily in Mexico 
City, El Heraldo. 

General Dieguez is at present commanding the 
forces operating against Villa in the north and 
Pelaez in the Tampico oil fields. 

If he can "get" these two men, he may prove a 
formidable candidate, for he will have completely 
restored order in the northern part of the republic. 
If, on the other hand, he fails to beat Pelaez and 
Villa with larger forces than even have been em- 
ployed against either bandit heretofore, he isn't 
likely to retain his popularity. 

But, having fought the Huerta crowd to a finish 
in company with Obregon, Gonzalez and Alvarado, 
[106] 



MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT 

Dieguez is regarded as one of the ablest men in the 
Mexican army. 

It does not seem probable that General Candido 
Aguilar will seek the presidency at the next election. 

The rumour of his candidacy can be traced to 
American newspapers, soon after his arrival in 
Washington on a special embassy from President 
Carranza. I am not sure that he would qualify at 
thirty-five in December, 1920, and the fact that he 
is President Carranza's son-in-law would militate 
against his chances at this time. General Aguilar 
has been governor of the State of Vera Cruz, and 
secretary of state for foreign affairs, and can afford 
to wait his turn until later. 

From what I have written, it would seem that the 
four best bets at this time in the great Mexican 
presidential handicap are: 

Obregon 
Gonzalez 
Alvarado 
Berlanga 

Of course there may be several entries of dark 
horses within the next few months, and conditions 
may change greatly. At the moment it is any- 
body's race. 

The next president of the United States of Mexico 
will find, when he takes office, December 1, 1920, 
that his powers are no greater than those ascribed 
[107] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

to America's chief magistrate in times of 
peace. But the constitution of 1917 in defining the 
powers of the President differs from that of the 
American constitution on several points, which may 
be quoted: 

"The President shall not absent himself from the 
national territory without the permission of the 
Congress." 

"The right to originate legislation pertains to the 
President of the republic, as well as to senators 
and representatives in Congress, and to the State 
Legislatures." 

The President's treaty-making power is am- 
biguously stated, for among the powers and duties 
mandatory upon him, one clause asserts that he is 
"to conduct diplomatic negotiations and make 
treaties," while it is elsewhere expressly stated to 
be an exclusive power of the Senate to "approve the 
treaties and diplomatic conventions concluded by 
the Executive with foreign powers." 

Since this chapter was written a new candidate for the presi- 
dency has been announced in the person of the Mexican Ambas- 
sador to the United States, Ignacio Bonillas. Graduate of the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, married to an American 
woman, thoroughly familiar with American ideas, tactful and in- 
telligent, Sefior Bonillas ought to be persona grata to Americans, 
if he really intends to make the contest. 



[108] 



CHAPTER SIX: BY SEA TO MEXICO 

On board the Ward liner from Havana to Vera 
Cruz was a young American business men returning 
to Mexico City after a sojourn in the United States 
who was kind enough to offer advice regarding 
newspaper work in Mexico. "You periodistas 
come down here," he said, "and see what you are 
told to see, and then we show you what we know you 
ought to see, and wait hopefully for the result. It 
is always the same. Poetry about the beauties of 
land and climate. Dull facts about trade. Noth- 
ing that will help us, and that should be your first 
object." 

Perhaps he was right, but to refrain from com- 
ment on mere physical impressions would be to 
indicate a degree of insensibility to which no news- 
paper man willingly confesses. 

Thursday evening the lights of Havana sank into 
the sea, and on Saturday morning, February 15, 
1919, after steaming through quiet seas, with much 
heaving of the lead, we anchored in five fathoms 
as near the Port of Progresso as possible; that is to 
say, some five miles out. 

Tedious discharge of cargo by lighter, and of 
passengers by tug meant hours of delay, and per- 
[109] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

mitted the more adventurous to go ashore, and all 
to wonder that a port which had been for half a 
century second only to Vera Cruz should be so ill 
provided with accommodations for shipping. 

Progresso, be it known, is the port of Merida, 
capital and chief city of Yucatan, one of the most 
prosperous of the Mexican States, and the centre 
of the henequen industry. It is also the natural 
port for the State of Campeche and the territory 
of Quintana Roo, the former producing lumber and 
chicle or chewing gum; the latter having a wealth 
of undeveloped forest and farm land. Progresso 
has 7,000, Merida 60,000 people, all dependent 
upon imports for food. The greater part of the 
Yucatan peninsula is a low and rocky terrain, fit for 
nothing but henequen, and with insufficient rain for 
other crops. Economic conditions have been un- 
favourably affected by the war in Europe, which has 
sent up the cost of living by depriving the country 
of necessary commodities from the United States, 
but in 1917 the declared value of articles invoiced 
at the American Consulate for the United States was 
$35,881,988. In that year 125,595 tons of 
henequen, valued at $34,959,937, were shipped to 
the United States, other exports being, in the order 
of value, chicle, raw cattle and raw deer hides, 
coffee, logwood, hair and sponges. Later figures 
are not available, but a sensational trend upward 
may be looked for in the next few years. 
[110] 



BY SEA TO MEXICO 



In Progresso the price of a shave was $1; of a 
bottle of beer, 60 cents; of a package of cigarettes, 
grading at 5 cents in Havana, 15 cents; of a pound 
of sugar, 25 cents; of a little dinner for four per- 
sons, |60. Naturally, the price of labour has risen, 
and with it the price of henequen, and there is no 
probability of a return to normal conditions until 
supplies and shipping also return to normal. 
Meantime, people are doing the best they can. The 
Comision Reguladora del Mercado de Henequen, 
Yucatan's state commission for the regulation of 
the henequen market, not only fixes the price of that 
product, but acts as banker, and issues a paper 
currency which it has managed to exchange steadily 
at 50 cents American per peso. 

But ask a planter of henequen, as I did. "Are 
you downhearted?" and the answer will be, "No." 
These people have something to sell which is a 
necessity, and of which they practically have a 
monopoly. They look forward to a better state 
of affairs, and believe that they see a beginning 
now. President Carranza is much interested in 
Yucatan affairs, and sent Luis Cabrera there to 
make a study of the situation. Mr. Cabrera spent 
several months in Merida, returned to Mexico City, 
made his report personally to the President, and 
will, it is understood, supervise plans for returning 
control of the henequen industry to the planters, 
ending the state monopoly. 

[Ill] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

I am able to say on excellent authority that the 
Mexican Government is fully awake to the need of 
a better port than Progresso to drain this vast ter- 
ritory, and this is a matter which will be considered 
as soon as the financial problem now harassing 
all Mexico is solved. For the present the cost is 
prohibitive. Water is shoal along the greater part 
of the Yucatan-Campeche coast, and the planter 
I have already quoted estimated that the matter of 
piers and breakwaters at any site he had heard of 
would involve an expenditure of from 10,000,000 
to 50,000,000 pesos. 

At Vera Cruz one passes the customs with not 
more delay or inconvenience that in Havana. 

Mexico's chief seaport has a capacious harbour 
protected by a breakwater and with forty feet of 
depth in the basin, enabling the largest vessels to 
lie up against the wharves. Normally the popula- 
tion is about 60,000. During the period following 
the evacuation by the American troops under 
Funston it was for a time the headquarters of 
General Carranza, then First Chief of the constitu- 
tionalists. Nearly 100,000 people, including the 
larger part of the American colony from Mexico 
City, crowded it for a time, and melted away when 
General Carranza returned to the republic's ancient 
capital. 

At present it is clean and seems prosperous. Ex- 
ports to the United States during the six months 
[112] 



BY SEA TO MEXICO 



ended June 30, 1918, had fallen to $2,086,380, as 
against $7,242,781 for the corresponding period of 
1917, so there still is abundant room for improve- 
ment. 

A favourite topic of conversation on the steamer 
had been the frequency with which the Vera Cruz- 
Mexico City train had been held up by bandits, and 
the ever accurate returning business men had stories 
of wrecked stations, derailed cars and engines and 
the swinging cadavers of bandits who had been 
caught and shot, which were to be seen all along the 
route. We were told that it would be the part of 
wisdom to buy drafts on Mexico City in Vera Cruz, 
because while it was probable that we might get 
through in safety, it was certain that if we were 
stopped the bandits would take whatever money 
we had with us, and also our luggage, and per- 
haps our clothing. 

This lurid fiction was not without a foundation 
in fact. So long as the central government was too 
weak to protect itself against the bands of patriotic 
"istas," whose argument in favour of universal free- 
dom was the indiscriminate destruction of whatever 
property could not be carried off, the Vera Cruz 
line was the subject of attack. I can only say that 
had I listened seriously to all these friendly warn- 
ings I would have missed seeing the most enchant- 
ing and ever changing vistas of always lovely land- 
scape it has ever been my good fortune to behold, 
[113] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

I would have missed the glories of Orizaba, 
Mexico's highest mountain. I would have arrived 
at old age without ever being on a railway train 
from 6.15 A. M. to 9 P. M. under circumstances 
which made every moment of daylight a delight and 
the coming of the darkness a source of regret. I 
give the figures as a gentle suggestion for emula- 
tion on the part of our own railway administration, 
for the train left Vera Cruz on time and arrived in 
Mexico City to the minute. 

Bearing in mind the warning that periodistas 
from New York are too much given to describing 
the beauties of the country, I refrain from telling 
of the contrast as the train rushes through the hot 
zone back of Vera Cruz, through the temperate 
climate where the character of vegetable life com- 
pletely changes, until an altitude is reached at 
which wraps are essential to comfort and perpetual 
snow is in sight. 

Perhaps it would be more worth while to tell 
why the journey is now safe. I will not say of the 
scenery, as Dicky Davis did of the coronation of 
the late Czar, that it is indescribable, but in mak- 
ing the attempt to portray it there would be danger 
of falling into poetry, like Mr. Wegg. 

Credit is due in the first place to General Candido 
Aguilar, for some time foreign secretary in Presi- 
dent Carranza's cabinet, and then in charge of re- 
construction work in the state of Vera Cruz. I had 
[114] 



BY SEA TO MEXICO 



the pleasure of meeting this gentleman during 
a brief stop at Cordoba and later, of visiting in his 
company a new aviation camp which is being con- 
structed there in order to provide a strong corps 
of airplane scouts for mountainous districts. 

General Aguilar has erected a series of block- 
houses at intervals of ten miles along these isolated 
tracks, declared a military zone for fifty yards on 
either side of the track, connected the blockhouses 
by telephone and permitted it to be generally known 
that any unauthorized person found inside the fifty- 
yard line will be shot on sight. The new system 
has been in operation for a short time only, but 
there have been no attempts to interfere with traffic. 
Probably there will be none so long as vigilance is 
maintained, especially as armed guards are pro- 
vided on through trains between the capital and its 
chief port. And as this book goes to press, night 
traffic has been resumed. 



[115] 



CHAPTER SEVEN: MEXICO CITY 
PROSPERS 

In Mexico City on February the twenty-second, 
flags of the United States of Mexico flew at half 
mast from all public buildings. From a few pri- 
vate houses including the American Club, flags of 
the United States of America floated proudly in the 
breeze — proudly, I say, because there have been 
times in this city when such a display might have 
caused a riot, times happily gone, we may hope, to 
return no more. 

It is unfortunate that Washington's Birthday and 
the anniversary of the murder of Francisco I. 
Madero, once president of the republic, and of Don 
Jose Maria Piiio Suarez, vice president, must be 
commemorated on the same day, but there was no 
conflict between patriotic mourning on the part of 
the Mexicans and the equally patriotic rejoicings 
of the small American colony. 

The entire press of the city next morning de- 
scribed in many columns and with profuse illustra- 
tions the three ceremonies held during the day in 
honour of Madero and Pino Suarez, in which fed- 
eral and state officials took part, many patriotic and 
[116] 



MEXICO CITY PROSPERS 



political organizations assisted, and in which 
oratory, music and flowers were offered to the 
memory of these victims of "the usurper Huerta." 

And full justice was done to the celebration of 
Washington's Birthday at the American Club. 
This institution, which dates from 1895, occupies 
a large house on the Avenida 16 de Septiembre, and 
has managed to maintain itself during troublous 
times, and doubtless will share in the return of 
prosperty now underway. 

The offices, a large dining room, and a ladies' 
room, are on the ground floor. The second story 
contains a large billiard room, library, lounge and 
bar. A goodly number of magazines and news- 
papers from many cities are to be found in the 
library, and there are pictures of all the American 
presidents from Harrison to Wilson. Of these the 
best is an early portrait in oil of Theodore Roosevelt. 

The decorations consisted of the national colours 
of the United States and of Mexico, and those of 
the Allies. There were no speeches, but an excel- 
lent dinner was served, to the jazz band accom- 
paniment of which Americans here appear as in- 
ordinately fond as if they were at home. The 
menu was as nearly American as possible, begin- 
ning with oyster soup, and including turkey, and 
ending with vanilla cream and coffee. Fish in 
Mexican style, and ravioli gave an exotic touch not 
unwelcome to the gourmet who sat opposite me. 
[117] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

The cost, if one may be pardoned for satisfying 
the curiosity of the folks at home, was five pesos per 
plate, approximately $2.50, exclusive of wine. 

There were probably one hundred and fifty at 
dinner, and the dance which followed was pro- 
longed by the younger people until an early hour 
next morning. On the assumption that the diners 
were representative of Mexico's American colony, 
I give the names, some of which may be familiar to 
people in the United States: George T. Summerlin, 
chancellor of the American embassy, and charge 
d'affaires in the absence of Ambassador Fletcher; 
Major Robert Campbell, military aide, Henry R. 
Carey, M. Elting Hanna, H. L. Sylvain and family, 
E. Kirby Smith and family, C. B. Cleveland and 
family, E. W. Sours and family, Arnold Shanklin 
and family, R. T. Dobson and family, A. F. Gode- 
froy and family, Lucien Ruff and family, W. B. 
Stephens and family, K. M. van Zandt and family, 
C. E. Cummings and family, W. P. Moats and 
family, C. Bland and family, Gerald Rives and 
family, H. Doorman and family, H. C. Baldwin 
and family, E. J. Wuerpel and family, F. E. Moore 
and family, J. J. Zahler and family, J. M. Gal- 
braith and family, C. H. McCullough and family, 
J. C. Van Trease and family. A number of Mex- 
ican gentlemen and their wives were also at the 
dinner, and several representatives of the diplo- 
matic corps, including the French Charge d' Affaires, 
[118] 



MEXICO CITY PROSPERS 



M. Frangois Dejean; Baron Fugitaro Otori, the 
Japanese minister, and Keicho Ito, of the Japanese 
legation. 

I have spoken of Mexico's returning prosperity 
as something underway. I do not think I can be 
wrong in this, for while, as a newcomer, I had no 
standards for comparison, I found a multitude of 
shops which seem to do a thriving business, and 
offered for sale every article of necessity, of 
luxury or convenience which is to be had in our own 
large cities. I found the streets which are wide and 
clean, thronged with people, of whom the propor- 
tion of the seemingly well-to-do would be normal 
for New York. 

There are beggars, it is true, but there are beg- 
gars in all Spanish American cities with which I 
am familiar, some even in American cities of 
Anglo-Saxon population, and the guide-books as- 
sure us that street mendicants are no new feature of 
Mexican life. And if the splendid Avenida de la 
Reforma which connects Chapultepec park with 
that loveliest of city parks, the Alameda, shows 
fewer automobiles than Fifth Avenue, it must be 
remembered that the entire population of the 
federal district of which this city is the municipality 
is less than 1,000,000. The picturesque Indian 
with his sandalled feet, enormous sombrero and 
brightly coloured blanket is still here, but he has 
a right to be, for this, the oldest city in America^ 
[119] • 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

was the capital of his people in the Thirteenth 
Century. 

However, unwilling to trust my own impressions, 
I formulated a series of questions, which I address 
to residents of every class. Some of the informa- 
tion thus presented I give in condensed form. 

An American shopkeeper: "I have done more 
business within the last two months than at any 
corresponding period of the last six years. Of 
course tlie tourist trade was my mainstay, but I 
find that the Mexicans are beginning to appreciate 
one of my specialties, handwrought leather goods, 
and I am not only selling leather as fast as my 
workmen are able to turn it out, but have many 
orders ahead. I find a renewed demand for drawn 
work, which is a good sign, but we have not been 
able in a long time to get any of the linens re- 
quired." 

A Mexican official: "Conditions are, I believe, 
steadily improving, but I believe that you will find 
very little ostentatious display of wealth. The 
working people and the middle classes are better 
off, and there is more money in circulation than 
we have had in a long time. These things mean 
that we are beginning to get results. Wealth is be- 
ing more evenly distributed, and the contrasts be- 
tween extreme luxury and dire poverty are less 
striking than in many years." 

A Spanish hotel proprietor: "We would be 
[120] 



MEXICO CITY PROSPERS 



glad to give you a room and bath, especially if you 
expect to be here for some time, but at present we 
are full up. A group of American visitors has 
engaged in advance every available room, and we 
can do nothing for you until they depart. It seems 
like old times to have so many tourists from the 
north." 

A Canadian banker: "Conditions are easier 
than they have been for some time. The return 
of prosperity involves the return of confidence, and 
I cannot say that this is complete, but I think we 
all feel a sense of relief when we compare banking 
conditions today with those we have gone through." 

An American importer: "A complete under- 
standing with the United States is the one thing 
essential to the commercial and industrial develop- 
ment of Mexico. When that has been arrived at, 
you may expect a boom in all lines. Until then, 
we will do the best we can, but the uncertainty of 
the past has been a most serious drawback. We 
all want to know what Mr. Wilson intends to do, if 
anything." 

There are, however, more hopeful signs of a re- 
turn to better conditions than are revealed either 
in the life of the capital or the observations of 
men and women long resident here. 

Of primary importance I count the return of the 
emigres. Thousands of Mexicans of intelligence, 
wealth and position, were forced into exile, or re- 
[121] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

tired from the country of their own free will, dur- 
ing what the Americans here refer to as "week-end 
governments," of which there was an all too rapid 
succession until General Carranza obtained control 
of Mexico City. 

They are coming back. Some of the most im- 
portant of the earlier regimes are here now. The 
Iturbides are here. Passengers with me on the 
Ward liner Mexico from Havana were General 
Camacho, a former brigadier of the Rurales, who 
had been in exile for five years, and Carlos Rincon- 
Gallardo, general of division under both Diaz and 
Huerta. 

To return to mere personal impressions, let me 
describe a Sunday afternoon visit to tlie bull ring. 
The Federal Government of Mexico does not in- 
terfere with the State Governments, except in cases 
of necessity, but is supreme in the federal district, 
which corresponds to our District of Columbia. 
President Carranza disapproves bull fights and 
lotteries, hence the lottery has disappeared, and 
there are no more bull fights in the capital. The 
bull ring is a circus with seating capacity of 20,000. 
It has been used for opera, and this afternoon was 
the scene of an entertainment by Anna Pavlowa 
and company, which now includes as principals 
Wlasta Maslowa, Alexandre Volinine, Hilda But- 
zova, with Alexandre Smallens, formerly of the 
Boston Opera Company, as musical director. 
[122] 



MEXICO CITY PROSPERS 



An old New Yorker myself, I shall not commit 
the folly reviewing a Pavlowa performance 2400 
miles from Broadway, but will be content with 
saying that the bill included "La Flauta Magica" 
which the programatical annotator pointed out is 
the work of Mario Petipa, of the Petrograd Im- 
perial Theatre, and "is not to be confounded with 
the opera of the same name by Mozart," with music 
by Maestro Drigo; "Walpurgis Night," Pon- 
chielli's "Dance of the Hours," Grieg's "Holland 
Dance," Grieg's "Anitra's Dance," and numbers 
by Kreisler, Lewandoswki and Lincke. Possibly 
the "Walpurgis Night" in the arrangement by 
Ivan Clustine may be new, and certainly it is 
charming. The audience to me was quite as fasci- 
nating as the dancers. 

Prices in the bull ring are graduated by the sun, 
and fixed, of course, by the management. On this 
occasion the cheapest seats were one and a half 
pesos, the dearest, seven and a half pesos. The 
cheap seats are those on the sunny side, and the 
more expensive, those in the shade. Seats in the 
arena were four pesos, the highest price being 
charged for the boxes which encircle the arena. 
Mexico City is a mile in the air, and "sol" and 
"sombra" mean a marked difference in tempera- 
ture, for at noon today the thermometer in my 
room at the Hotel de Geneve registered 65 Far. and 
its companion instrument in the sun marked 110. 
[123] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

Under the circumstances I took general admission 
in the "sombra," with an excellent view of the stage 
from seats on the stone bench about the middle of 
the auditorium. The acoustics were excellent. 

Probably a fifth of the eastern side of the am- 
phitheatre was cut off by the stage, leaving seats for 
6,000 in "the bleachers," if I may borrow a base- 
ball term for application to the bullring. All 
these cheap seats were occupied. There must have 
been more than 4,000 more people in the shade, in- 
cluding the fashionable element in the boxes and in 
the arena. It was a good day for Anna, and I can- 
not figure how, after giving the ballet liberal sup- 
port for a long run at the Teatro Principal, this 
city of half a million population could afford to 
spend 15,000 to 20,000 pesos for an open air per- 
formance unless business conditions were fairly 
good, even making due allowance for the fact that 
the Mexicans, like all Latin-American peoples — 
like myself — are melomaniacs. 

A well dressed, good humoured, highly appre- 
ciative gathering it proved to be. The performance 
was scheduled to begin at half past four, but was 
late, and the people in "the bleachers" indicated 
their impatience by clapping with a triple rhythmic 
beat, and occasional catcalls, just as we might do 
at home at a ball game. But when the trumpet call 
announced that the curtain was about to be drawn, 
[124] 



MEXICO CITY PROSPERS 



there was hearty applause, followed by complete 
silence. 

This same signal, by the way, is employed at 
buU fights, to announce that another bull is about to 
be brought into the arena, and so, after the inter- 
mission, the trumpet sounded, some wag in "the 
bleachers" shouted "Otro toro!" (another bull) and 
the vast audience shrieked with laughter. 

Caruso writes that he sang in "Carmen" at a 
rainy matinee in September, to a $45,000 "house"! 



[125] 



CHAPTER EIGHT: JOURNALISM PAST 
AND PRESENT 

Journalism in Mexico City has undergone many 
changes in the last quarter of a century. During 
the rule of Porfirio Diaz every encouragement was 
given to the press. It was the policy of the Govern- 
ment to patronize arts and letters, and in the Latin 
world the distinction between journalism, author- 
ship, and magazine work is by no means finely 
drawn. Workers in all three classes are grouped 
in what I ventured to call in a little volume of 
essays "The Serio-Comic Profession." 

Don Porfirio asked only that nothing be written 
against the Government. The publication that con- 
travened the presidential policy of optimism disap- 
peared. And Don Porfirio liked to see a foreign 
press in his capital. When he came into power 
he found the Trait d' Union, a French publication 
still issued under the name of Le Courrier du Mex- 
ique, which was established in 1849 and is the 
oldest daily in the republic today. 

He helped along the American who founded the 

Two Republics back in the Eighties, and looked 

with favour on the Mexican Herald, which was a 

well written and thoroughly up-to-date American 

[126] 



JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT 

daily, still much lamented in Mexico. The Mexican 
Herald was a morning paper, but there was an 
English afternoon publication called the Daily- 
Record, besides an Anglo-American weekly. 

Toward the close of the Diaz administration 
there must have been nearly 250 publications in 
the capital, including trade papers. The verna- 
cular press was headed by El Imparcial, and the 
Catholic organ, El Tiempo, the other dailies being 
El Heraldo, El Mundo, El Diario, El Pais, El 
Popular, Mexico Nuevo, El Diario del Hogar, and 
the organ of the Spanish colony, El Correo Espanol. 

All of the publications named with the exception 
of the French daily have vanished, but that does not 
mean that the Mexicans have abandoned the pleas- 
ant and profitable habit of reading the daily papers. 

Today the leading Spanish language dailies are 
the five issued in the morning, three of which carry 
Associated Press dispatches, and appear to have 
well organized reportorial and editorial staffs, and 
correspondents in all the important Mexican cities. 
Most of them also maintain branch offices in New 
York and in Spain. They are: 

El Universal, now in its fourth year, and edited 
by Felix F. Palavicini. This is an independent 
newspaper having eight pages in its weekly day 
editions, and Sunday supplements. 

Excelsior, now in its third year, and edited by 
Rafael Alducin, El Universalis chief rival. It is 
[127] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

well written, newsy, and disposed to be friendly 
to the United States. 

La Republican edited by Heriberto Barron, is sup- 
posed to be owned by M. Aguirre Berlanga, whose 
candidacy for the presidency is referred to else- 
where. It has taken over the greater part of the 
staff and equipment of El Pueblo, the government 
organ, which discontinued publication in the sum- 
mer of 1919. El Pueblo, by the way, was an 
excellent paper of its type. The editor was 
Gregorio A. Velasquez. 

El Heraldo is the personal organ of General 
Salvador Alvarado, another presidential candidate. 
Alvarado is as much at home in a newspaper office 
as a bull in a china shop, and his startling indiscre- 
tion in attacking his country and its Government 
during an international crisis is not likely to be 
forgotten soon, either in Mexico or the United 
States. 

The fifth morning daily is El Democrata, which 
was rabidly anti-American and notoriously pro- 
German during the war. It is in its fifth year, and 
is directed by Federico de la Colina. A change of 
management has been announced since the signing 
of the armistice. Its dispatches are furnished by 
"The Spanish American News Agency," with head- 
quarters in New York. 

The much lamented Mexican Herald moved from 
the capital to Vera Cruz on the occupation of that 
[128] 



JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT 

port by American forces. It did not come back. 
It is doubtful whether the combined American and 
English colonies in Mexico City now have suffi- 
cient numerical or financial strength to support an 
English daily, so Le Courrier du Mexique began 
the publication of an English section recently, and 
will continue, and enlarge this department, if it 
meets with proper support, and the Spanish dailies 
have English sections. 

The afternoon newspapers are numerous but un- 
important. Conspicuous among them are A. B. C, 
a frank imitation of the Spanish publication of the 
same name, and La Nacion, which aims to be dis- 
tinctively Mexican. 

New weeklies of the cheaper type are constantly 
being bom and dying of inanition. Usually they 
are devoted either to a personality which lacks a 
following or to a "cause" which declines to support 
it. A specimen is "The Voice of Misery" ("La 
Voz de Miseria"), which modestly admits that it 
speaks for the labour interests of the republic. The 
first issue was on March 1, 1919. Then there is 
a little handbill in Spanish which professes to speak 
for the Bolshevik movement, although Linn A. Gale 
makes the same claim for his English "journal of 
the new civilization," which bears his name. 

President Carranza allows the widest latitude to 
publications in the republic, and apparently does 
not object to sensational attacks either on himself, 
[129] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

his officials or his policies. He realizes the value 
of an intelligent press, but is disposed to show his 
contempt for "yellow journalism" in Mexico by- 
ignoring it. At any rate, things are tolerated in 
print which would not have been permitted under 
the older regime. That does not mean, however, 
that President Carranza is equally disposed to over- 
look misrepresentation on the part of foreign cor- 
respondents here. 

Press matter is filed in triplicate if addressed to 
foreign countries, and one copy goes to the censor. 

There is what is known as the Law of 33 by which 
the chief magistrate is empowered to expel from 
the territory of the republic any objectionable 
foreigner, without explaining his reason for so do- 
ing, and without recourse for the individual "thirty- 
threed." This fate has befallen many "periodistas 
norteamericanos," and may again. 

"The Government is not concerned at the trans- 
mission of ordinary newspaper matter, or personal 
gossip," a Mexican official said to me. "We 
realize the difficulty of securing accuracy of in- 
formation at all times, and make due allowance 
for the instinct which leads a man to send out a good 
story without too much investigation. But we see 
no cause for the toleration either of stupidity or 
malice. A first offence in either direction is over- 
looked, but if a second and third follow without 
an appreciable interval — "Thirty-three." 
[130] 



JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT 

After all, not such a bad law, and one which 
would have been extremely useful in the United 
States during the war. 

The astonishing thing to me about the Mexican 
daily press as represented in the capital is its ex- 
cellence. Newspaper men will admit that it is 
more difficult to publish the news in brief compass 
than in a blanket sheet, and the average size of a 
Mexican daily is eight pages. 

Each paper must maintain a large enough staff 
to cover the official news, and all the departmental 
sources of information of the local as well as the 
federal Government. There is no city press service. 
Each paper must maintain its editorial writers, 
critics, and desk editors, as with us. But the As- 
sociated Press dispatches are received in English, 
and must be translated. That means fast work. 
The fact is, as soon as a piece of telegraph is re- 
ceived it goes to the translation department, con- 
sisting of a chief and two or three men, and by 
the time the last sheet of "copy" is turned in by 
the operator, all the rest of the dispatch has been 
translated and put into type. 

Linotypes and modem presses are the rule. 
There is a weakness for illustrations and large 
headlines, but news judgment appears to be sound, 
and the dailies, considered by and large, are clean, 
well written, and well printed. 

At a staff dinner given by El Universal where 
[131] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

I was a guest, I counted at least four women em- 
ployes, and was told there were others who con- 
tributed regularly, so here is one profession, at 
least, open to Mexican women of the higher classes. 

I have not been able to make a complete survey 
of Mexico's provincial press, but the newspapers 
examined reflect the influence of the newspapers 
in the capital precisely as the French provincial 
newspapers do that of the Parisian dailies. It is 
rather startling, however, to note that Tampico is 
about to have an English daily. 

Volume 4, No. 9 of the Tampico Tribune, which 
is dated March 1, 1919, says: 

"A daily newspaper such as Tampico is entitled 
to have and which we shall endeavour to supply, 
must have a complete telegraphic news service, 
capable of competing with the Texas daily news- 
papers coming here, and those from Mexico City. 
It must have a competent staff" of experienced news- 
paper men to handle the news and to report 
thoroughly and accurately the events of the city 
in which its readers are interested. This has been 
provided for. . . . The date of issue cannot yet be 
announced but it will be as soon as arrangements 
now being made are completed." 



[132] 



CHAPTER NINE: MEXICO'S NATIONAL 
SCHOOL OF ART 

Mexico has developed a national school of art 
in a double sense, as the tourist may find, possibly 
to his surprise, certainly to his delight, on visiting 
the capital of the republic. Guide books, of 
course, refer to it, but in matters of art, seeing is 
believing, and it apparently has remained for me 
to bring back to America tangible proof in the way 
of photographs, some of which illustrate this book. 

Mexicans, whether of Indian, Spanish or mixed 
blood, have always possessed the art creative in- 
stinct. Temple decorations and grotesque pottery 
of the prehistoric period, the latter revealing first 
an Egyptian, later a Mongolian influence, show 
craftsmanship of no mean order, and the picture 
writings of the Aztecs are hardly inferior to the 
illuminations on monkish manuscripts of contem- 
poraneous moyen-age Europe. A striking example 
may be seen in the map of ancient Tenochtitlan 
which hangs in the National Museum, and might 
almost serve as an outline chart for the Mexico 
City of today, so little has the topography changed. 
Montezuma's Palace and the Great Teocalli OC' 
cupied the sites of the present National Palace and 
[133] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

Cathedral, and there is a mound, clearly drawn and 
with careful attention to distance which is unmis- 
takably Chapultepec, now crowned as then by the 
summer residence of the ruler of the land, and in- 
dicated by the Aztec cartographer by a perfectly 
drawn grasshopper, Chapultepec meaning in the 
not yet extinct Nahuatl tongue, "grasshopper hill." 
Perhaps the vivid colours with which Nature has 
painted the Mexican landscape, the translucent at- 
mosphere, and the intense brilliancy of the sun- 
light may have been the inspiration of all the races 
that have lived on the Mexican plateau, but the love 
of line and colour persists in the today in the com- 
monest blanket, the crudest pottery of native fabri- 
cation. 

In the wake of the Conquistadores came the 
Padres, and with them a passion for church build- 
ing so intense that in a single district of Puebla with 
not more than 5,000 inhabitants there are three 
hundred and sixty-five religious edifices ... all 
of which may be counted with the aid of a field 
glass from the pyramid of Cholula, even now a 
place of pilgrimage because of the shrine which 
surmounts it. With the multiplication of churches 
and convents grew the need of sacred paintings and 
holy images with which to adorn them. The 
church fostered and controlled a school of native 
artists . . . mere copyists, most of them . . . 
whose work is still preserved from the Rio Grande 
[134] 




SAN JERONIMO 
By J. Gutierrez 



MEXICO'S NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ART 

to the borders of Guatemala. It gave them new 
ideas of perspective, of realism, and sound pig- 
ments; nor did it discourage the imaginative 
faculty, although it prescribed the realm in which it 
might range to its own precincts. Best of all, it 
set before the painter some excellent examples of 
the best European art, for the church speedily 
grew rich in the New World, and Flemish, Spanish 
and Italian art was too pious a luxury to be deemed 
extravagant. 

Laymen, too, imported many pictures and much 
statuary. Students of Murillo will remember that 
in his youth that master was seized with the desire 
to travel. Investing his small capital in a bolt of 
canvas, he cut it into convenient pieces, covered each 
with paint, and selling these pot-boilers to the West 
India export trade set forth upon his journey. 
Doubtless Valasquez, fashionable as a court painter, 
fared better in a financial way in his dealings with 
Spanish military and civil ofRcials in Mexico, but 
until long after the end of the Colonial Period, 
Mexican art was almost wholly ecclesiastical. 
Nothing, in fact, of a distinctly national character, 
developed until the reform laws became effective in 
1860, whereby civil government was disassociated 
from the church, a vast amount of church property 
sequestered, and public education made a function 
of the state. 

Churches, public buildings, the homes of wealthy 
[135] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

haciendados house thousands of these religious 
paintings, many of them unsigned, like the superb 
"Santa Cecilia," which some of my friends find sug- 
gestive of Guido, and which may, indeed, prove to 
be a faithful copy of some European masterpiece. 

But the earliest of Mexico's painters were 
Spanish, not Mexican. Thus Baltazar de Echave, 
"el Viejo," called "the Mexican Titian," had 
formed his style in Venice, before settling in Mexico 
about 1590. And Sebastien Arteaga, a notary of 
the Holy Office, who shares with Echave the fore- 
most place among earlier Mexican artists, had also 
studied in Italy before sailing for America. Of 
his many works, which vary greatly in quality "Los 
Deposorios de la Virgen" (the betrothal of Mary) 
is, I think, the most beautiful, although a Zurburan 
quality is so frequently encountered in his paintings 
that Zurburan's "El Castillo de Emmaus," valued 
at $150,000, was long attributed to him. It is 
precisely this criticism of Arteaga that the admiring 
student will apply to most of the Mexican painters 
prior to 1860. All show some European influence, 
if not of an individual master-painter, then of a 
school, or of the church or the church's preferred 
artists. 

Dating the Renaissance of Mexican art from 
1860, one notes the turning away from religious to- 
ward purely national subjects, or those having 
historical or artistic significance. 
[136] 



MEXICO'S NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ART 

Thus Rodrigo Gutierrez devoted a large compo- 
sition to the memorable session of the Senate of 
Tlaxcala, August, 1519, when the Cacique Xico- 
tencatl swayed the Tlaxcalan nation to attack Her- 
nando Cortes, although the Spanish adventurer 
was making war upon their ancient enemy, Mon- 
tezuma, and had asked permission to march un- 
molested through the republic's territory. Surely 
the painter has seized upon a dramatic moment! 
Aside from the boldness with which the actors are 
represented, one cannot help being impressed with 
the enthusiasm of the younger leaders for war, 
while at least one of the older leaders of the 
council appears to be still doubtful of the issue. 
An antiquarian friend assures me that Tlaxcalan 
costumes and furnishings have been reproduced to 
the minutest detail, and that the painter sought his 
models among the descendants of these ancient 
republicans. 

"The Courtyard of an Old House," by Jimenez, 
is drawn with such nicety as to be almost photo- 
graphic. The colouring is subdued for the most 
part, notwithstanding the strong light in which the 
small girl is playing with her pigeon. 

"Othello," by Gonzalez Pineda, seemed to have 
been studied from Salvini's famous impersonation 
of the Moor which would possibly have been fa- 
miliar to the painter. That, at any rate, is the 
opinion of John Ranken Towse, the dean of New 
[137] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

York's dramatic critics, to whom this photograph 
suggested delightful reminiscences. Pineda, while 
following tradition as to the Venetian colours of 
Desdemona, has declined to ascribe a negroid type 
to the unfortunate Moor, but gives him both in 
cranial formation and in a warmly tinted skin 
purely Arab characteristics. 

"The Valley of Mexico," which according to the 
much travelled Bayard Taylor, is second only to 
that of Cashmere in loveliness, fascinated Jose M. 
Velasco to such an extent that he devoted at least 
three large paintings to it. In charm and delicacy 
of colour, and in the courageous fidelity with which 
he depicts so extended a view, they are difficult to 
choose from. That reproduced here only seems 
best for photographic purposes. The volcanoes 
of Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl which rear their 
crests in the background were some thirty miles 
from the painter's easel. 

Soto's "Ahuehuetas de Chapultepec," apart from 
its value as a fine piece of landscape painting, will 
be of interest to students of natural history because 
the trees are the sole survivors of the immense 
tropical forest which flourished in the Valley of 
Mexico before the climate cooled to its present tem- 
perate average. 

A fascinating historical study is the painting by 
Pelegrin Clave, who was bom in 1872, representing 
the last days of Isabel de Portugal. 
[138] 




OTHELLO 

By Gonzalez Pineda 



MEXICO'S NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ART 

The San Jeronimo of J. Gutierrez is a modern in- 
stance of devotion to religious subjects, justified by 
careful drawing of a striking pose, excessive care 
in the treatment of details, and a fine sense of 
colour. 

The "auto-retrato" of German Gedovius is not 
only a clever bit of self -portraiture, but an example 
of racial fidelity to type. However much he may 
look like a Spanish cavalier of the older ages, 
Gedovius is one of the professors in the Nacional 
Academia. 

It must not be supposed, however, that these 
paintings, selected as being representative of a 
distinctly national and Mexican school of art, alike 
as they are in microscopic brush-work, careful at- 
tention to detail, and an uncommon sense of 
colour values, are the best or the only ones worth 
seeing. There are dozens of painters, as proved 
by scores of pictures, well worth the attention of 
the art loving visitor in Mexico. 

Nor is modem Mexican art exclusively national. 
No new movement abroad has been without its re- 
action in Mexico. Thus one will be reminded that 
Beardsley lived, that Zuloaga and Sorolla painted, 
that Goya and Zamacois are no more to be ignored 
than Murillo and Velasquez. Traces of impres- 
sionism and post-impressionism is there. The 
futurist . . . but no, I am not sure that the cubists 
have reached Mexico as yet. 
[139] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

As an example of broad brush-work and the 
occasional use of a palette knife, it may be worth 
while to present "La Ofrenda," by Saturnino Her- 
ran, who died last year, a youth of promise and of 
ultra-modern proclivities. It represents a family 
group in one of the boats which ply the canals of 
Xochimilco, providing the City of Mexico with 
fruits and flowers, and aff'ording a pleasant outing 
to the tourist. 

I spoke of Mexico having developed a national 
school of art in a double sense. Perhaps I have 
proved the existence of real painters in that lovely 
and much abused land, which is the main purpose 
of this little essay, but now, prepare to be startled. 
There are 1,400 students in the National Art 
School in Mexico City, devoting their time under 
competent instruction to painting, statuary and 
architecture. And I doubt if our own Art 
Students' League contains a finer or more ambitious 
lot of youngsters. The Academia de los Nobles 
Artes de San Carlos de la Nueva Espana, was 
founded in 1778 by Charles III of Spain, and took 
possession of its present home, back of the National 
Palace, in 1791. Like the national conservatories 
of music and declamation, it is a government insti- 
tution, and removed from political influences, not- 
withstanding that fact. 

There is a superb patio, containing an excellent 
selection of antique casts, useful for the student to 
[140] 



MEXICO'S NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ART 

work from, and the galleries display good speci- 
mens of the master painters of Europe, and a suffi- 
ciently large collection of the works of Mexican 
painters to cover the entire history of the subject 
from the earliest period, that of the Conquest, to 
date. Taken in connection with the historical 
paintings preserved in the National Museum, only 
a few steps away, the collection is ample for all the 
needs of the student until such genius has been 
displayed as should, in every part of the world, 
bring the award of a prix de Rome. There is 
everything to please the eye and instruct the mind. 
The one thing lacking to Mexican art is the kind 
of appreciation which manifests itself in money. 
One of Mexico's greatest painters, Luis Monroy, 
died this year. He had been obliged to follow the 
legal profession to gairj the living which the world 
owed him for his art. 



[141] 



CHAPTER TEN: A STUDY IN MELOMANIA 

There are few tall buildings in the Mexican 
capital, but in one cf them, at la. Calle Nuevo 
Mexico No. 6, is the office of Maestro Julian Car- 
rillo. From his windows on the fifth floor we 
looked across flat roofs where women were hang- 
ing out the family wash toward a massive pile of 
white marble at the lower end of the Alameda. 

"Some day that building will be finished," said 
Carrillo, "and then Mexican composers will come 
into their own. Operas which exist in manuscript, 
symphonies, all will be heard. But when will it be 
finished? Who knows?" 

"Fortunately I do," I said, "and I am glad to 
be the bearer of good news. President Carranza 
told me yesterday that he was resolved to complete 
the interior of the Nacional Opera before the ex- 
piration of his term of office. He would not 
promise, he said, to carry into eff^ect the whole of 
the decorative scheme, but he realized the need of 
an auditorium for music and drama of the highest 
class, and as two-thirds of the estimated cost of 
12,000,000 pesos had been spent already, he con- 
sidered it good business to convert a property now 
useless into a producer of revenue." 
[142] 



A STUDY IN MELOMANIA 



Carrillo smiled expansively, and remarked that 
he was now at work on his third symphony. I 
fancy this work will be ready for a public hearing 
by the time the Nacional Opera is thrown open to 
the public, that the news will have a stimulating 
effect on other Mexican tone poets, and that gentle- 
manly managers in divers music centres on both 
sides of the great pond will look longingly toward 
the time when music drama can be adequately 
staged in this music-mad capital. True there is to 
be a short season of opera when Lent ends, but 
opera in an ordinary theatre is quite different from 
opera in an opera house, and Mexicans hope their 
new temple of art will be the most beautiful in the 
world. Certainly it will be the largest in the three 
Americas. 

I had gone to Carrillo seeking information as to 
the training of the military bands which give public 
concerts in all the larger cities of the republic. 
One in Vera Cruz, one in Guadalajara, one in 
Puebla, and three in Mexico City had demonstrated 
such astonishingly uniform excellence as to arouse 
my curiosity. The brasses were mellow, the wood- 
winds smooth, and the leaders none of them mere 
time beaters, although of course, differing widely 
both as to temperament and ability. 

As New Yorkers may have forgotten Carrillo's 
attempt to found an "American Orchestra" here in 
1915, it may be well to remind them that he speaks 
[143] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

with authority, having been president of the In- 
ternational Music Congress held in Rome in 1911, 
that he was at one time director of the Mexican 
National Conservatory, and that he was concert- 
meister in Leipsic under Arthur Nikisch. Back 
in Mexico after many years in other lands, he 
teaches violin and composition, writes technical 
works on theory which are issued by Schirmer for 
Spanish American countries, and gives what leisure 
he has to original work. 

Mexican bands, Carrillo affirms, owe their ex- 
cellence to two things: careful preliminary training 
of the musicians in the conservatories, of which 
there are now two instead of one; and unremitting 
labour at rehearsals. He does not claim that the 
personnel of the bands is really higher than in 
other countries, but he insists that elsewhere, and 
especially in the United States, not enough time is 
devoted to rehearsals, and that where orchestras are 
abundant there is a tendency to look down upon 
military bands, and to relegate to them only the so- 
called popular music. He deplores the pride of the 
musician who thinks it beneath his dignity to direct 
or compose for a military band, and says that every 
conservatory pupil should be made to study a band 
instrument. 

An enthusiast on bands? 

Well rather. 

The fact is that the average military band in the 
[144] 



A STUDY IN MELOMANIA 



United States would not think of attempting the 
programs which are given here. Popular marches, 
an occasional overture, ragtime and jazz certainly, 
but not the symphonies of Beethoven, which are a 
feature of Sunday morning performances in the 
Alameda. Naturally the Police Band fails to pro- 
duce the effect of the Philharmonic, the Symphony 
Society, the Bostonians, or even the minor sym- 
phony orchestras, but the adaptations are good, the 
educational value is immense, and the bands suffice 
to keep alive the sacred fires until in the good times 
that are coming, orchestral concerts and cham'ber 
music will cease to be a rare treat. 

Lately Mexico has heard an annual series of 
twelve concerts by the Nacional Orchestra, but the 
Beethoven Orchestra, of which much was expected, 
has disbanded, and concerts of string quartette are 
to be listened to only in the conservatories. 

The oldest of these institutions, the Conservatorio 
Nacional de Musica y Declamacion, is housed in an 
ancient palace which once belonged to the Univer- 
sity of Mexico, not far from the Plaza de la Con- 
stitucion, and facing one side of the Palacio Na- 
cional. There is an immense patio, with offices 
and class rooms opening upon the ground floor and 
balcony, and a teaching staff for all branches of 
musical and dramatic art and literature. The 
pupils number 200. The Free Conservatory, 
organized some years ago after a disagreement in 
[145] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

— ^ 

the faculty of the older school, maintains separate 
quarters and staff, and trains 400 pupils. Both 
conservatori'es are subsidized by a grant from the 
Government, and both are apparently doing good 
work. 

Mexico's earliest musicians, it need hardly be 
said, were chiefly concerned with church music, 
but in course of time a school of national com- 
posers has grown up, including many writers of 
dance music and songs, and some few men who 
have composed in the larger forms. Among the 
best known musicians who have written serious 
works may be named Milesio Morales, Ricardo 
Castro, Felipe Villanueva, Gustavo Campa, Manuel 
Ponce, Rafael Jello, and Arnulfo Viramonte. 

Of Maestro Carrillo, I may say in parting, that 
he is the most distinctively American composer I 
have ever encountered, being in fact a full blooded 
American Indian, a native of the State of San Luis 
Potosi. Like most cosmopolites he is fond of 
New York, and may return for a visit within a 
year or so. 



[146] 



CHAPTER ELEVEN: BANDITS AND 
BOLSHEVIKI 

"There is no, danger of the Bolshevik movement 
gaining headway in Mexico," a distinguished Mex- 
ican official said to me. "Bolshevism is an in- 
temation disease which must wear itself out, and 
which is highly contagious. 

"Poor Mexico! How the world pitied us when 
our disorder first broke out. It was the first mani- 
festation of the international epidemic, all our 
friends thought we were very sick indeed, and 
some went so far as to prepare obituaries. We 
felt pretty badly, too, there's no denying it, but 
now Mexico is convalescent, and we all realize that 
we were fortunate in having a very mild attack. 
And now we are immune, and glad of it. 

"Look at Russia, for example. There is the in- 
ternational disease in its acute form — smallpox 
where we had only varioloid. In fact I think that 
in Mexico we had only a bad case of measles." 

Certain it is that Mexico's revolution began in 
bloodshed, and that pacification has been gradual; 
while to the contrary, Russia's revolution began with 
the peaceful abdication of the Czar, and soon 
evolved into a region of terror, of which the end is 
not yet in sight. 

[147] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

It is a matter of common knowledge in Mexico 
that the Bolshevik movement was encouraged there, 
as in Russia, by German gold — of common knowl- 
edge because El Universal published the whole 
record of slimy German propaganda in detail, with 
verification from the papers of the German minister, 
Von Eckardt. 

Naturally the series of articles in this expose at- 
tracted wide-spread interest throughout Mexico, and 
brought down upon the newspaper publishing them 
and upon its editor, bitter denunciations from the 
men and the interests involved. So sure was he of 
his facts and of the proof behind them that Felix 
F. Palavicini would reprint in El Universal the 
most eloquent of these attacks, usually without 
comment. 

To be successful a Bolshevist movement must 
have the support of a large part of the masses, 
since it is evident that if both aristocracy and bour- 
geoisie are destroyed, only the proletariat remains. 
Now the proletariat of Mexico is eminently pacific. 
It will work if compelled to, or if in the humour; 
but it is easily fed, housed, amused; and it prefers 
to sit in the sun and smoke cigarettes and drink 
pulque to getting excited about the rights of man. 
Or if the day is hot it prefers to sit in the shade and 
drink pulque and smoke cigarettes. 

The Mexican proletariat never heard of Karl 
Marx. It doesn't know the difference between 
[148] 



BANDITS AND BOLSHEVIKI 

■ 

Tolstoi and Vodka, and doesn't wish to. The Mex- 
ican proletariat doesn't read much. It can't. 
That was the fault of Don Porfirio Diaz, who had a 
whole generation in which to educate the lower 
classes, but didn't think they were worth it. 

The part of the Mexican proletariat in the revo- 
lutions which have so often convulsed the country 
has been about as important as that of an army 
mule. Most of the time he has been forced into 
the army, and usually he has been glad to get out 
again. 

The ruling classes have coaxed him with patriotic 
speech, and threatened him with divers punishments 
to keep him fighting, and the analogy will be 
stronger to any one who has heard a mule driver's 
monologue anywhere in Spanish America. 

As long as the mule pursues his course with suf- 
ficient "get up and git," he is my darling, my angel, 
the son of a happy mother, and of a family blessed 
with many gallant brothers and virtuous sisters. 
But let the mule balk, and he is assured that he is 
bound for perdition, and that his entire family con- 
nection are of a most undesirable kind. 

Mind you, I write of the proletariat of Mexico 
of today and yesterday, going back to the rule of 
Montezuma. Of the future I am not so certain. 
Mr. Garranza's Government is undertaking to open 
all the wisdom of the world to the proletariat 
through the public schools, and the time is coming 
[149] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

"^™^"™™~~*^^^^^ — ^^^^— ^— ^ij^^ 

when every Mexican boy and girl will be able to 
read and write. Still the day when Mexico can 
be interested in political theories learned out of 
books is at least fifteen years in the future, when it 
may be hoped that Bolshevism will have burned 
itself out. 

Mexico, in fact, is just arrived at the stage when 
it can take up the matter of collective bargaining 
between labour and capital. It doubtless will have 
a progressive experience with unionism, guided and 
aided by the Government. But it seems perfectly 
plain that Bolshevism can have no growth unless 
it is supported either by the Government, the church, 
or the opposition to the Government. 

Enemies of Mr. Carranza denounce the new con- 
stitution as a Bolshevik instrument, although a two 
years' test has thus far failed to justify them. Bol- 
shevik publications, in English as well as Spanish, 
are permitted, but that is apparently because the 
Government makes a fetich of "liberty of the press." 

A Bolshevik organization in the State of Vera 
Cruz sought to bolster itself up in the opinion of the 
public by electing to honourary membership Gen- 
eral of Division Candido Aguilar. Aguilar de- 
clined in language which made it plain that he 
detests anything that has to do with Bolshevism. 
Clearly the Lenine-Trotsky theories have no place 
in Mexico. 

The church isn't trying to build up a party here 
[150] 



BANDITS AND BOLSHEVIKI 

just now. The archbishop of Guadalajara and the 
archbishop of Mexico have returned, and other prel- 
ates have resumed their labours. The church 
wishes to make friends, and if the church has ever 
manifested sympathy with Bolshevism outside 
Mexico, I do not recall it. I fancy, indeed, that 
if the Bolsheviks in Mexico can win the support of 
the hierarchy, the I. W. W. may convert that fine old 
gentleman, James, Cardinal Gibbons, to their way 
of thinking in the United States. 

The remaining hope of the Bolsheviki would 
seem to be the opposition to the Government. At 
present there isn't any. Regardless of previous 
political affiliations, the best class of Mexicans to- 
day are trying to uphold the existing Government, 
to make it strong enough for security at home, and 
respect abroad. 

There remain the bandits. 

Have they not realized all the dreams of the Bol- 
sheviki already? 

But the bandits are not here to stay. They are 
doomed to disappear, as they always have when 
a stable government has been attained, here or else- 
where. Some say that Americans have a liking for 
bandits, a point on which I am not sure, as the news- 
papers tell of 10,000,000 cartridges shipped to 
"General" Pelaez, the bandit who rules the oil 
jungle back of Tampico. I also have a recollection 
of arms having been provided at one time from the 
[151] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

United States for "General" Villa, which brings 
me to a story of that "patriotic" scoundrel that may 
be new north of the Rio Grande. 

Villa announced to a gathering of his followers 
that President Wilson was the only man living with 
whom he would not shake hands. He declared 
that he had been shamefully treated by our first 
magistrate, and that he would never forgive him 
so long as he lived. 

"He took me up, and made much of me," said the 
"Patriotic General," "and then dropped me just 
as suddenly. The only reason he would give was 
that I am a bandit. Why, I was a bandit when he 
took me up!" 

Where do the bandits get dynamite? 

That is a question the Mexican Government has 
been vainly asking for some time. The fact is 
they have been getting it, for they have neither the 
intelligence nor the facilities to manufacture it 
for themselves. Not only have they been provided 
with dynamite, but they have learned how to use 
it. Some years ago the bandits held up a south 
bound train in what was then regarded as Villa 
territory, and having looted it were much annoyed 
because they could not force the lock on a single 
car, which happened to be loaded with giant powder 
and detonators for a mining camp. So they set 
fire to the train, and were having a wild dance 
about it when there was a terrific explosion. When 
[152] 



BANDITS AND BOLSHEVIKI 



the smoke cleared away there were no bandits to 
be seen. ^ 

The Government's present effective but costly 
method of protecting the railways by means of 
blockhouses and armed trains was resorted to after 
the Zapatistas and Felicistas had discovered that a 
charge of dynamite placed under a rail could be 
exploded by means of an electric wire, the "pa- 
triotic" officer in charge remaining carefully under 
cover until after he had pressed the button, and be- 
ing content with such spoils as were not destroyed in 
the explosion. 

An American travelling man whose business com- 
pelled him to come through a danger zone several 
years ago, told me that on one occasion, after the 
passengers had been relieved of all their valuables, 
and in some cases of portions of their clothing and 
their shoes, they were all obliged to line up and 
listen to an address by the "general" in command. 

"If you must come through these territories 
where you are not welcome," he said, "I wish you 
would not plunge into unnecessary danger by vio- 
lating every means of safety. We are obliged to 
relieve our necessities as honest men by borrowing 
some of your superfluous wealth, but we prefer 
not to kill you. My boys are as gentle as lambs, 
but they have been persecuted so often that some- 
times they are careless. 

"When you hear firing, do not look out the win- 
[153] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

dows. My boys are sure to think that where there 
is a head there is a gun, and they will pop at any 
head they see. 

"And do not stand on the front or rear platforms. 
That is where a tyrannical government places its 
armed guards, who are not always in uniform. My 
boys will pop at anybody they see on a platform, 
and if you are hurt, it will not be their fault but 
yours." 

The etiquette of the road in those days was for 
the passengers, when firing began, to lie flat on the 
floor on their little tumtums, and wait until they 
were told to get up. If the bandits had been beaten 
off", they resumed their places as before. If the 
bandits captured the train, they would off'er their 
silver, watches, rings, hand luggage, etc., having 
secreted gold or valuable papers, and sometimes 
got off" very easily. 

But not always. There are stories of women 
massacred as well as men, and of personal searches 
which are better not repeated. 

Some three years ago the wife of a man promi- 
nent in the American colony was returning home 
over a route which was not altogether safe, when 
the train stopped suddenly. Instinctively she fell 
to the floor, and a second later a bullet crashed 
through the glass of the window where she had been 
sitting. This man had tried to be absolutely 
neutral in Mexican politics, but he got off^ the fence, 
[154] 



BANDITS AND BOLSHEVIKI 

and it was not on the side of the "general" who had 
nearly murdered his wife. 

It is all very well, of course, for the scoundrels 
who rob and maltreat passengers, dynamite or de- 
rail trains, blow up bridges, to say that they are 
not bandits, but the chiefs of political parties who 
are making an earnest effort to heal the wounds and 
dry the tears of their beloved patria. In years 
past they have been believed, some of them, for a 
time at least, in our own country, but not in 
Mexico. 

The decent Mexican looks upon a bandit pre- 
cisely as a New Yorker does a gunman. He is to 
be put out of business in the quickest and most con- 
venient way, and the less said about it the better. 
But a nightstick is not the surest of weapons for a 
New York policeman, and it does not seem that the 
quickest way of eliminating the bandits of Mexico 
is to embargo arms and munitions intended for the 
recognized Government. 



[155] 



CHAPTER TWELVE: IS MEXICO 
PRO-GERMAN? 

"Is Mexico pro-German?" 

That is a question I have been asking myself and 
others — Mexicans as well as Americans, during my 
first month's sojourn in the Republic. 

I shall try to answer it frankly, assuming that 
my own record as co-founder of La Ligue des Pays 
Neutres, of which Theodore Roosevelt was honour- 
ary president, and such men as Venizelos, Take 
Jonescu, Ruy Barbosa, Conde Romanones, heads of 
section like myself, places me above the suspicion 
of sympathy with Kaiserism and Kultur. 

My answer is plainly and emphatically "no!" 

The answer of the Mexicans is also in the nega- 
tive, with the exception of a few who would like 
to make it appear that President Carranza was 
entirely too friendly with Herr von Eckardt. 

In the case of Americans the nays appear to 
have it, but the reader will have to be content with a 
vive voce vote, for to attempt a roll call might place 
certain of our countrymen who have a stake in 
the country in an embarrassing position. 

Mind you, I do not say that Mexico was pro- 
American during the war, or even pro-British, but 
[156] 



I 
i 



IS MEXICO PRO-GERMAN? 



I believe that all Mexicans of the better class love 
France, and that for five years they secretly vio- 
lated the injunction laid upon them, as upon others, 
to be "neutral in thought as well as in deed." 

Officially Mexico was neutral. 

Actually Mexico annoyed us by tolerating the 
most extravagant German propaganda, and by per- 
mitting an extensive system of communication to 
be operated between Berlin and South America 
and Spain through post, telegraph and wireless. 
This is precisely the course taken by the United 
States up to within a short time before the declara- 
tion of war, a course upheld by the American Gov- 
ernment and a part of the American press, how- 
ever irritating to a majority of the American peo- 
ple. Doubtless it was distressing to the Allied 
Powers who knew, as we all know now, that they 
were fighting for all humanity, not for themselves 
alone, and may naturally have felt that "he that 
is not for me is against me"; but it was in strict 
accordance with national and international law. 
We were told so by Washington. 

When the United States entered the war, Amer- 
icans were no less aggrieved by Mexican neutrality 
than the Allies had been by American neutrality. 
We are inclined, and perhaps with justice, to re- 
gard ourselves as spokesmen for the three Amer- 
icas, and we felt hurt that Mexico did not follow 
the example of Cuba, which declared war against 
[157] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

the Central Powers, or at least that of Haiti, which 
provoked a rupture of diplomatic relations. The 
fact that Cuba is bound to us in its foreign rela- 
tions by the Piatt amendment, and that Haiti has 
been occupied by Marines for three years, made 
no difference. It was our part to lead, and for 
the other sovereign states of the Western Hemis- 
phere to follow. 

Moreover, we were obliged to keep a large force 
of men on the border, and we were frankly afraid 
of "neutrality" in so near a neighbour. Having 
revised our own ideas of neutrality, we applied the 
revision to all the rest of the world. We thought 
of the Yellow Peril invented by William Hohen- 
zollern and proclaimed to the world by our own 
yellow press. We ascribed to German money and 
intrigue in Mexico a power which, the event proved, 
it did not possess. 

Was not this our attitude, and could not this at- 
titude, conveyed in terms not too polite through 
the press, have produced an unpleasant reaction in 
Mexico? 

In Mexico the situation was extraordinarily 
complex. 

The whole policy of Porfirio Diaz had been 
founded on one axiom: "We must keep on good 
terms with the United States." 

The wisdom of this course was perfectly appar- 
ent to every Mexican who sought to win supreme 
[158] 



IS MEXICO PRO-GERMAN? 



power after the retirement of Diaz. I venture to 
say that it is and has always been quite as plain 
to General Carranza as to any one else. But keep- 
ing on good terms with the United States has not 
been an easy matter. Washington did not make 
it so. 

Let us try to see things from the Mexican point 
of view. 

In the first place, Mexicans remember certain 
historical episodes quite well. Only this year 
there died one of the generals who had tried to 
resist our invasion of 1846—47. It cost us a trifle 
of 25,000 men and $166,500,000 to beat the Mex- 
icans at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Vera Cruz, 
Cerro Gordo, Churusbusco, Molino del Rey, Casa 
Mata, and to fly the Stars and Stripes on the Pala- 
cio Nacional Sept. 14, 1847. 

When the settlement was made February 2, 1848, 
by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo we took in 
payment New Mexico and Upper California, com- 
prising 522,955 square miles of territory, and 
"rectified" the Texas frontier by making the Rio 
Grande the boundary from its mouth to El Paso. 
We assumed claims of American citizens against 
Mexico amounting to $3,250,000, and paid to 
Mexico $15,000,000. It was a better bargain than 
the Louisiana or Alaska purchases, but ever since, 
like Warren Hastings, we have been astonished 
at our own moderation. 

[159] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

The Mexican remembers, of course, that 1847 
was the sequel to the liberation and subsequent an- 
nexation of Texas, and that these two acts of spolia- 
tion reversed the territorial rank of the two coun- 
tries, making the United States first where she had 
been second. 

Writing as an American whose family furnished 
five soldiers to the American forces in the war with 
Mexico, I cannot well condemn the course of the 
United States in taking what it apparently thought 
was essential to its development, but I certainly 
will not attempt to justify it on moral grounds. 
Nor can I blame the Mexican for remembering that 
which we would like to have him forget. 

Apparently he had forgotten it during die rule 
of Porfirio Diaz, but the United States found oc- 
casions to remind him of it — the seizure of Vera 
Cruz, and the Punitive Expedition under General 
Pershing. 

Mexicans were as completely mystified by these 
extraordinary proceedings on the part of the United 
States as were Americans. They could not and 
can not understand why the United States should 
have taken forcible possession of the chief seaport 
of the republic without a declaration of war, nor 
can they understand why, having obtained con- 
trol, the American forces were withdrawn. I can- 
not either, but doubtless a satisfactory explanation 
may be given a generation hence, when the history 
[160] 



75 MEXICO PRO-GERMAN? 



of Mr. Wilson's administration is written with the 
proper perspective, and with due access to the se- 
cret archives of the State Department. 

Neither can Mexicans understand why General 
Pershing should have been sent in friendly terri- 
tory to capture a bandit who had formerly been on 
the best of terms with the United States, and why 
he retired to the United States without accomplish- 
ing the purpose for which he entered Mexico. 

Diplomacy, as represented by Lane Wilson and 
John Lind, and William Bayard Hale is still unin- 
telligible to the Mexicans. It may be illustrated 
by an anecdote I heard here of the departure of 
Lind. 

His conferences with Huerta having been un- 
productive, Mr. Lind called in a group of rep- 
resentative Americans, and asked their advice. 
They had none to give, whereupon he decided that 
the time had come to deliver an ultimatum. It 
was duly written and read to the Americans, and 
they were asked what the result would be. One 
of them replied that there wouldn't be any result. 

"What?" cried the super-envoy. "Do you think 
Huerta will dare to ignore the armed power of the 
United States of America? He will reply, and at 
once, or I will withdraw from Mexico, and war will 
follow." 

A messenger was accordingly dispatched to find 
Huerta, who happened to be out of town for the 
[161] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

time being. He returned to the Palace in the aft- 
ernoon, and the message was presented. He read 
it and laid it aside. Being informed that an im- 
mediate answer was expected, he glanced at it again, 
and said he saw no occasion to hurry. 

"But Mr. Lind will depart for the United States 
on the six o'clock train if he does not receive a 
reply." 

"Mr. Lind is at liberty to leave Mexico when 
he pleases," said Huerta, with a grin; "but if he 
wishes to go at once, see that a presidential private 
car is placed at his disposal." 

Mr. Lind on receiving this message, prepared 
to depart, but he again called in his acquaintances 
in the American colony before going to the station. 

"It is war, gentlemen," he announced with more 
than usual solemnity. "I shall be on United States 
territory within twenty-four hours, and will im- 
mediately telegraph a statement to Washington. 
The President will declare war against Mexico the 
next day. I tell you this, so you may get out of 
the country as best you may." 

None of the Americans took Mr. Lind seriously 
enough to follow his suggestion about quitting 
Mexico. 

And nothing happened. 

Uncertainty as to the intentions of the United 
States with regard to Mexico was, until American 
troops got into action in the Argonne, accompanied 
[162] 



i 



IS MEXICO PRO-GERMAN? 



by a disposition to undervalue the American fight- 
ing force. At the time we were building up a 
great army, that army which was to deliver the 
coup de grace to the Hun fighting machine, a Mex- 
ican military official spoke of our troops as 
"Chocolate Soldiers" in the course of a conversa- 
tion with an American friend. He was at great 
pains, I am glad to say, to apologize for this, after 
our men had shown their worth, and gave our 
troops the superlative praise they deserved. 

Clearly, the Mexicans understood nothing of 
our motives in entering the war, and still less of 
our. strength. All they could see was the threat 
of an invasion from the north. 

We did not take the trouble to enlighten them 
until the war was practically over. We did noth- 
ing until it was too late to accomplish anything 
to offset the propaganda of the Central Powers. 
Mr. Creel's bureau offered long stories for pub- 
lication, free of charge, where the German Lega- 
tion offered short stories, and paid for their inser- 
tion. 

The pro-Ally press of Mexico had the greatest 
difficulty in obtaining news print at a time when the 
German Legation was supplying its subsidized news- 
paper with all it could use. 

But to say that, even under such conditions, Mex- 
ico was pro-German, would be far from the truth. 

Mexico had her experience of French invaders 
[163] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

under Maximilian of Austria in the Sixties, and 
licked them thoroughly. That episode Mexicans 
could easily forgive. Mexico had been in the 
closest of financial and commercial relations with 
France. Good Mexicans like good Americans ex- 
pected to go to Paris when they died. Well to do 
Mexican women clothed themselves in French 
gowns, saturated their bodies with French per- 
fumes and their minds with French novels. Mex- 
ican millionaires loved to spend their money on 
French furnishings for their homes, French wines 
for their tables, and as much time as possible in 
Paris. France, the art centre of the world, France 
the Latin, Catholic, republic, appealed to Latin, 
Catholic, republican Mexico in the time of her 
greatest sorrows. 

And Mexico remained strictly neutral. 

Why? 

Because the Mexicans would not fight beside the 
Yankees. 

They disliked us, and they distrusted us. 

But we are necessary to them, and they know 
it. I am inclined to think that they dislike and 
distrust the Germans quite as much as they do 
us. And the Germans are not merely not neces- 
sary to them; it will be, as they see it, a matter 
of years before the Germans can even be useful. 

The dislike and distrust of the Mexicans for 
[164] 



75 MEXICO PRO-GERMAN? 



Americans is based largely upon a misunderstand- 
ing for which we are in part to blame. 

The dislike and distrust of Mexicans for Ger- 
mans is based upon a perfect understanding of the 
Teutonic character and aims. 

President Carranza's course during the war re- 
flected public sentiment accurately. He did noth- 
ing against the United States that could justify a 
charge of broken neutrality. He did nothing for 
the United States that would involve Mexico with 
the Central Powers. 

He did not, as his critics so often say, back the 
wrong horse. He watched the race without mak- 
ing a bet, and is content with the result, but he 
could not have forced his people into an active 
alliance with the United States, even to help France. 

This is the truth as I see it. 

And people in Mexico have seen a great light. 
They will no longer oppose the plans of the Presi- 
dent for a rapprochement within the United States. 
They seem now to be willing to forget and forgive. 

Under the circumstances, ought not the initiative 
to come from us? 



[165] 



CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE DEMON AS 
LICOR DIVINO 

At a time 'when the press is devoting editorials 
to the dangers threatening Mexico as a resuh of 
prohibition in the United States and the plans of 
the American Whiskey Trust to establish six giant 
distilleries in the chief cities of this Republic, I 
am able to say on the highest authority that no 
concessions will be granted for distillery purposes. 
When the project was outlined to President Car- 
ranza, his only comment was that the Mexican Gov- 
ernment was not so badly in need of money as to 
wish to profit from vice. 

Nevertheless there was quite a tempest in a tea- 
pot as a result of the recent visit of el Sefior J. 
McRead, representing American whiskey inter- 
ests. He found that there were admirable sites 
for distilleries, that an abundance of grain could 
be obtained suitable for malting, and he assumed, 
perhaps, that Mexicans are a thirsty race. What 
more natural than to transplant Peoria to, we will 
say, Monterey? 

I take it for granted that the American whiskey 
men really planned an export business, meaning to 
benefit by the cheapness of labour and materials in 
[166] 



THE DEMON AS LICOR DIVINO 

Mexico, for there is no reason to believe that they 
have failed to hear of pulque, the form in which 
the Demon Rum is best known to and best loved 
by the masses of the Mexican people. If they 
haven't heard of pulque — 

Sabe que es pulque, — 
Licor divino? 
Lo beben los angeles 
En vez de vino. 

Which may be freely interpreted: "Don't you 
know that pulque is liquor divine ; the drink of the 
angels in place of wine?" 

In our own glorious republic whiskey men al- 
ways have been good business men, and ought 
therefore to know that they cannot compete with a 
national drink which is to some extent an agri- 
cultural by-product, and which is so cheap that at 
manufacturers' prices a plain souse may be pur- 
chased for two cents, a complete jag for three cents, 
insensibility and a fine headache for five cents, 
and a murderous fit of the D. T. for a dime! 

What then is pulque? 

The question is much more easily answered than 
the one propounded several years ago by President 
Taft: "What is whiskey?" 

Pulque is merely the fermented juice of the 
Maguey plant, which thrives without cultivation 
[167] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

on the Mexican plateaus, and is valuable for many 
other purposes than the production of intoxicating 
drink. It furnishes a vegetable parchment not less 
durable than vellum; twine, rope; both needles and 
thread; molasses and vinegar, and roofing for 
houses. It acts as a binder for friable soil, and 
its enormous root formation conserves moisture 
during the dry season. Corn and barley are grown 
between the long rows of maguey. Without the 
maguey there is a probability that this arid land 
would become a desert. That, at least, is the 
opinion of many of the most intelligent land own- 
ers, and as corn is an important if not the most 
important food crop, and Mexico is now export- 
ing barley, national prohibition of pulque does not 
seem possible until a substitute for the maguey 
can be found for other agricultural purposes. 

Propagated from suckers, the maguey attains 
enormous size, and in the course of five years or 
more, is ready to blossom. It is, in fact, our Cen- 
tury Plant, but the leaves attain a length of ten 
feet, and the flower stalk rises to from twenty to 
thirty feet above the ground. But before the 
maguey flowers its central stalk is cut down, and 
the heart of the plant is scooped out to form a 
bowl, which soon fills with "aguamiel" (honey wa- 
ter). The plant, which would have died after 
flowering, continues to yield fluid at the rate of 
from a gallon to a gallon and a half daily for a 
[168] 



THE DEMON AS LICOR DIVINO 

period of from three to five months, depending 
upon the skill of the men who handle the job. The 
usual method of removing the liquid is for the 
workman to suck it into a pipette formed of a cala- 
bash. When the calabash is full he closes the 
bottom aperture with his finger, and then releases 
it into such a pig or sheepskin as was used for 
carrying wine in the memorable days of Don 
Quixote. Then he scrapes the cavity from which 
he has emptied the aguamiel, so as to keep the 
wound of the heart of the maguey fresh. If he is 
a good workman and removes but the outer layer 
of the plant, it will continue to yield its sap for 
five months. If he is careless or unskilful, and 
wounds the plant too deeply, it may die in three 
months or less. 

The aguamiel is sweet, slightly astringent, and 
aromatic in flavour. The odour is not unpleasant, 
and the aftertaste bitter. Carried in its skin bag 
to the hacienda or farm house, it is poured into a 
large vat, or a cow-skin hung upon a wooden frame, 
depending upon the size and importance of the es- 
tablishment, where a small quantity of stale pulque 
is added to start fermentation. In twenty-four 
hours the aguamiel has been converted into the 
pulque of commerce, a milky looking and sulphur- 
ous smelling liquid, and is shipped to the larger 
centres of population, where it retails at five times 
the cost of production. It was estimated some 
[169] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

years ago that the consumption of Mexico City 
amounted to 100 or more carloads daily, at a cost 
of 20,000 pesos a day. Doubtless there has been 
no diminution in the cost during the revolution. 

As to the effect of the national drink on the peo- 
ple there is a wide difference of opinion. 

Dr. Felipe Valencia, a Mexican physician of dis- 
tinction who has travelled much and observed 
greatly, asserts that pulque is the curse of the na- 
tion, just as mate is of the people in extreme South 
America. He considers that its effect is much more 
deleterious than that of beer, and that the constant 
use of pulque in large quantities is certain to wreck 
both the moral and physical structure of the ad- 
dict. Having been invited to contribute a series 
of articles to El Pueblo, the official newspaper 
of the Republic, based upon the results of travel in 
the United States and South America as well as Eu- 
rope, he exposed the pulque evil and attacked it in 
every way he could. Dr. Valencia is far from be- 
ing an extremist. He likes a good glass of wine, 
and approves of beer in moderation. He would 
also approve of pulque if the lower classes could 
be brought to approve of moderation in consump- 
tion, a thing that now appears impossible. 

On the other hand, a Mexican aristocrat assured 
me that he always drank a small glass of pulque 
daily, and believed that it had valuable tonic qual- 
ities, and was an aid to digestion. 
[170] 



I 



THE DEMON AS LICOR DIVINO 

The effect on the Mexicans who are neither of 
the aristocracy of birth nor of brains is unmistak- 
able. There is more drunkenness here than in 
Cuba, and about as much as would be found in 
Kentucky before that State went dry. The pulque 
drunkard is quarrelsome, and drifts easily into 
crime. 

The upper class Mexican considers himself a 
gentleman, and he is. The lower class Mexican 
calls himself a "hombre" (man), and has a code 
in which personal courage ranks first in impor- 
tance. 

Two anecdotes will suffice to show the effect of 
pulque on the "hombre" where a thousand might 
be told. A dispute having arisen between two 
peons as to which was the braver man, one bet 
that he would stand in front of an electric train. 
The wager was to be paid in pulque. The tram 
smashed one pulque addict into pulp, and the 
other, considering the death of his friend a great 
joke, went to the hospital after having tried to 
consume the entire amount of the wager at a sit- 
ting. 

Two friends and neighbours started home from 
a pulque shop arm in arm. It was necessary, since 
neither could have walked well alone. A quarrel 
arose over some trivial circumstance, in the course 
of which one "hombre" called the other a liar. 
Both drew their knives, and began carving each 
[171] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

other in a deliberate and not unskilful manner. 
By-standers called the police, but did not interfere. 
When the police arrived, one man was dead. The 
other, holding together a gaping wound in the 
abdomen with his hands, walked to the police sta- 
tion, and lived long enough to explain to the officer 
in command that he had "fallen on a piece of 
glass. 

A real "hombre" does not think of asking the 
police to assist in the settlement of personal affairs, 
nor does he "squeal." 

His ethics are those of a similar strata of so- 
ciety which sometimes get into print in American 
newspapers. 

A majority of the passional crimes, perhaps even 
of all crimes of violence, may be traced in Mexico 
to pulque. 

More than an hundred years ago, when Count 
de Revillagegido was viceroy, pulque paid a rev- 
enue in Mexico City of 800,000 pesos per annum, 
on a consumption of about 100,000,000 quarts. 

The consumption has decreased, but pulque is 
still the greatest of Mexico's evils, despite a dozen 
attempts at reform. Mescal and tequila, both dis- 
tillations from the cactus, are said to be even more 
injurious than pulque itself. Fortunately, they 
are less popular, because more expensive. 

I have no prejudice against the Demon Rum in 
any of the forms in which he has been manifest to 
[172] 



I 



THE DEMON AS LICOR DIVINO 

me, and no distaste for pulque. But I must con- 
fess that what I say about pulque is based on ob- 
servation rather than experiment. So far as I am 
concerned, its odour is against it for purposes of 
beverage, and I am compelled to admit that, from 
the point of view of hygiene, it is probably the 
dirtiest alcoholic ever marketed. 

But the problem of pulque is one of immense 
difficulty for the Government. Prohibition might 
produce worse evils than the beer strikes which 
have taken place in Great Britain. The Govern- 
ment would not, I believe, hesitate to attack tlie evil 
at its source, but for the immediate effect on the 
soil which would result if the maguey were no 
longer cultivated. And but for pulque the maguey 
would not be cultivated. 

The Government, on the other hand, recognizes 
the instinct for stimulant which prevails through- 
out humanity. It hopes to devise a scheme for 
regulation short of prohibition. But while it is 
trying to solve the pulque problem, it will not com- 
plicate matters by authorizing new establishments 
for the distillation of grain. As evidence of free- 
dom from fanatical sentiments, either for or against 
the use of alcohol, it is worth nothing that the tariff 
on the importation of foreign wines has recently 
been reduced. The import tax on a case of cham- 
pagne was 140 pesos. Today the tax is only 40 
pesos. 

[173] 



CHAPTER FOURTEEN: TRADE AND 
COMMERCIAL CREDITS 

If the Germans are decidedly "under all," their 
organization is intact. They will sell American 
goods if they can get them until they are able to 
substitute German goods. So free are they from 
racial antipathy that they will sell British and 
French goods — if they can get them — until German 
manufactures can again be imported. 

For the last five or six years some of us who 
know a bit about Latin America have been preach- 
ing to American business men that never again 
would they have such an opportunity to extend and 
solidify their exports, but quite in vain. They 
could not get ships. They did not like long credits. 
Patriotic motives gave Europe the preference. 
There were a thousand reasons for inactivity, most 
of which when put to the acid test, were based on 
the matter of credits. 

South of the Rio Grande are 100,000,000 
people, inhabiting countries of vastly greater 
natural wealth than Europe, who have been driven, 
in some cases against their wish, to the markets of 
the United States. During a period when billions 
have been lent to Europe, the rule enforced has 
[174] 



4 



TRADE AND COMMERCIAL CREDITS 

been cash with order or draft against bill of lading, 
in dealing with the Latin countries of the New 
World. 

What will happen is this. If the Germans fail 
to regain their dominant position, it will be as- 
sumed by France and Great Britain, who are al- 
ready actively exploiting Cuba and Mexico, and 
probably the twenty republics further south as 
well. 

Writing in Collier s some months ago, former 
President Restrepo, of Columbia, made this plea: 

"Have faith in us, North America. The Eu- 
ropean producers and commissions readily give us 
six and nine months credit. North Americans dis- 
like to give us even three months credit. They 
prefer thirty days credit, and many give us not a 
day, yet they give a longer credit to their own 
people. We do not understand why this is so. 
These credits have helped European commerce 
enormously." 

To confine the discussion of credits specifically 
to Mexico, and as showing the kind of competition 
to be expected by Americans from the rest of the 
world, I present in condensed form information 
prepared for the American Chamber of Commerce 
in Mexico by Edwin W. Sours, general manager in 
Mexico for R. G. Dun & Co. 

Prior to the war British exporters sold to large 
Mexican houses in open account, charging 4^ per 
[175] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

cent, on unpaid balances. Sales to small concerns 
were as close as possible for cash, drawing through 
a bank on shipping documents. The rate on un- 
paid balances during the war has been raised to 
5I/2 arid in some cases to 6 per cent. In sales of 
textile machinery, in which a large trade had been 
established between England and Mexico, the cus- 
tom was one-third with order, one-third against 
shipping documents, and one-third when the ma- 
chinery was in operation ; but exceptions were made 
when competition required, and six to twelve 
months credit was allowed. 

The British system was largely followed by the 
French exporters, but the French were more 
generally represented by resident agents, and an 
enormous trade in dry goods was carried on here 
by French firms who maintained purchasing 
agencies in Paris. Credit was very freely extended 
in the sales of wines and brandies, amounting to 
six months or more. 

The export trade of Germany had assumed large 
proportions through a different system from that 
employed by England and France. Not only were 
agents and representatives established in Mexico, 
but travellers came frequently, and it was their 
custom to sell both to the larger houses in the more 
important cities, but also to the small trade in the 
interior towns. To these buyers credit was ex- 
tended freely for a term of six and eight months 
[176] 



TRADE AND COMMERCIAL CREDITS 

and even longer. The principal German trade was 
in hardware, both heavy and small, toys, drugs, 
chemicals, leather and shoemakers supplies, ma- 
chinery, electrical goods, etc. 

The British sold cotton and woollen goods, linens 
and laces. 

The French sold silks and novelties. 

The Americans sold what they could. 

Since the war the bulk of Mexico's foreign trade 
has necessarily been with the United States, al- 
though Spain, which had chiefly exported wine, 
canned goods and wooden ware to Mexico, has de- 
veloped a fair sized trade in shoes, dry goods, and 
various articles made by hand. 

The United States had, before the war, built up 
a trade in machinery, hardware, typewriters, shoes, 
papers, printing supplies, and has been supplying 
temporarily practically all the other lines enu- 
merated. 

Mr. Sours notes the American tendency to insist 
on cash or cash against shipping documents, and 
tells a story to illustrate the situation. 

"A very large order was placed for dry goods 
by one of the leading houses here, of unquestioned 
credit, with an American house. The Americans 
were requested to ship the order, sight draft for 
bill of lading, but refused. They were then asked 
to turn over the shipping papers to the buyers' 
bankers in New York, who happen to be one of the 
[177] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

best known financial institutions there. This was 
refused and strict cash in hand exacted as a condi- 
tion for shipping the goods. The order was can- 
celled." 

As a result of such practices, Mr. Sours thinks 
considerable dissatisfaction exists, and it need oc- 
casion no surprise should the importers of Mexico 
show an inclination to return to their European con- 
nections and curtail as far as possible their pur- 
chases in the United States. 

The time has now come, of course, when this 
shift of international trade is possible. 

The Ward Line has now increased its service via 
Havana to New York to pre-war frequency, a 
steamer a week. But the Compagnie Generale 
Transatlantique has resumed its service to Vera 
Cruz, and it is expected that a group of English 
capitalists will inaugurate a new service with 
British ports. 

And the country has been full of British and 
French commercial travellers, all desirous of re- 
newing old relations, which are quite different 
from those in vogue in the United States. 

The "drummer" who goes into Mexico and ex- 
pects to start work the first day with a line of sample 
cases is doomed to disappointment. It is not done 
any more. He will find that his French or British 
colleague goes about it in quite a leisurely way. 
First a brief morning call, then a day or two later 
[178] 



TRADE AND COMMERCIAL CREDITS 

a luncheon, with social gossip, and no talk about 
business. Perhaps a visit to the theatre, if the city 
is large enough to support one. Then a suggestion 
from the Mexican business man that he needs cer- 
tain supplies, and the order is booked. 

Of course this isn't our way of doing business, 
but after all it is pleasant, and in the end involves 
the exchange of money for goods. 

A New Yorker traveling for a chemical house has 
learned the trick. "These people," he said, in- 
dicating the class with whom he did business, "are 
not merely my customers, they are my friends. In 
many cases I dine at their houses, and at the time 
for me to catch a train to come here from the last 
town I visited, my biggest customer in that place, 
who had entertained me delightfully, took me to 
the station in his car." 



[179] 



CHAPTER FIFTEEN: FINANCE AND 
THE BANKS 

Nothing could be more opportune than the pro- 
posed visit to Mexico of a committee of American, 
French and British financiers. They will be re- 
ceived courteously, hospitably, and it is the im- 
pression here in well informed circles that the 
Government will lay its cards face up on the table. 
(This article was written in March, 1919.) 

But, to quote a Mexican gentleman who knows 
local conditions, they will find that Revolution has 
been succeeded by Evolution, that Mexico today 
has sufficient means for actual expenses, and needs 
money only for the purposes of reconstruction. 
Once a friendly understanding between the two 
Governments has been reached, the financial situa- 
tion will quickly right itself, in his opinion, as it 
will involve the matter of credits rather than of 
cash. And there is every reason to hope, from the 
Mexican point of view, that the few existing differ- 
ences are now being adjusted in a manner which 
will prove satisfactory to both Mexico and the 
United States. 

"Imagine yourself dealing in a business way 
with a young man of twenty," continued my in- 
[180] 



FINANCE AND THE BANKS 



formant, "and then, after a lapse of ten years, re- 
suming relations with him. He will have matured 
somewhat, will he not? He will have gained both 
wisdom and experience." 

In a word, what Mexico desires most of all is the 
friendship of our country, because Mexico believes 
that co-operation in business matters will follow. 

During a civil war finance moves in a mysterious 
way its wonders to perform. Ask any of the older 
generation in the South, where the notes and bonds 
of the Confederate States of America are still 
treasured because of a sentimental value which 
cannot be destroyed. Study the history of the 
Greenback party, or the rise and fall of the 16 to 1 
epidemic, and it will appear that even in a period 
of reconstruction, financial problems are not clear 
to all alike. 

The Evolution will frankly welcome foreign 
capital; the Revolution was aware that foreign sup- 
port could not be obtained at any price. The Revo- 
lution maintained itself by revolutionary methods. 
The Evolution will be developed by constructive 
methods. The first step has been taken in the 
establishment of metal currency, which is abundant, 
with exchange maintained at the rate of two pesos 
to the American dollar. 

The Mexican financial problem is triangular. It 
involves: 

(A) Either a foreign loan or increased revenues 
[181] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

to meet the cost of necessary reconstruction work, 
and for the expansion of agricultural interests. 

(B) Settlement of the controversy over petrol- 
eum. 

(C) Adjustment of the claims of foreign holders 
of the railways which have been nationalized. 

To the Mexican who faces local conditions, whose 
present living and future state depend upon the se- 
curity of internal credits, his side of the triangle is 
all-important. To the foreigner, whether Ameri- 
can, French or British, either petroleum or rail- 
ways looms much larger. To an unprejudiced 
observer whose interests are aloof from Mexico and 
from foreign capital invested there as well, the prob- 
lem is complex, but by no means impossible of 
solution. 

The matter of a foreign loan need not be dis- 
cussed until something tangible develops. The pe- 
troleum controversy hangs fire for the present in 
the Mexican courts. The railway interests are no 
worse off for the moment than in our own country. 
Let us try to understand something of Mexico's 
budget, therefore, as a foundation for comprehen- 
sion of the whole problem. 

Mexico has been trying to work out a financial 
system adapted to present day conditions. To this 
end President Carranza appointed a "Comision de 
Reorganizacion Administrativa y Financiera," 
which at once availed itself of the services of 
[182] 



FINANCE AND THE BANKS 



foreign economists. A preliminary survey of the 
Mexican revenue problem, with suggestions for the 
reconstruction of the system was completed in July, 
1918, by Dr. Henry Alfred E. Chandler, professor 
of economics in Columbia, which has been pub- 
lished with a foreword by Prof. Edwin R. A. Selig- 
man, of the same institution. Prof. Seligman 
pointed out that "a fundamental defect of the old 
system was the multiplicity of taxes." And he 
asserted that "just as the French Revolution swept 
away at one blow the heterogeneous mass of com- 
plicated mediaeval taxes in order to replace them 
by a small number of well selected imposts, so the 
first task of the fiscal reformer in Mexico must be 
to introduce simplicity in the tax system. A few 
carefully chosen sources of revenue will be pref- 
erable to a jumble of partial and ineffective im- 
posts." 

This statement, much amplified by Professor 
Chandler, has been deeply pondered by Mexican 
statesmen, who appear also to have been impressed 
by these suggestions of Professor Chandler, made in 
1917: 

"A very important part of the wealth of the 
country is taxed very little or not at all. 

"A large part of the productive wealth of the 
country is controlled by non-residents or aliens, 
and escapes a portion of its fair share of the state 
and national burden. 

[183] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

"While the large percentage of wealth of the 
country is concentrated in the hands of the very 
few, the bulk of the tax burden of the nation rests 
upon the lower classes. 

"Directly or indirectly, consumption instead of 
property or income, is one of the tax bases most 
used or finally reached." 

To prevent waste of public funds and provide 
a modern system of accounting, Henry Bruere, of 
New York, was invited to bring to Mexico a staff of 
accountants in order to install an audit office, and 
notwithstanding some opposition on the part of 
under officialdom, this system is now in operation. 

But having taken counsel of American and other 
experts, the Carranza Administration decided upon 
the most sweeping reforms. 

Luis Cabrera, secretary of hacienda (treasury), 
in a conversation with me some days ago, used a 
homely illustration to describe the situation. 
"Vegetation is so rank in our country," he said, 
"that before we can do any planting we have to set 
fire to the fields. It seemed to me that in the 
multiplicity of laws and precedents we had in- 
herited in relation to financial matters, there was 
nothing to do but destroy before trying to build 
anew. Naturally every change brought a storm of 
protests, but we weathered the storm. 

"I found, for instance, that we were not taxing 
exports, and as our exports are entirely raw ma- 
[184] 



FINANCE AND THE BANKS 



terials, it seemed to me that we were overlooking 
an excellent source of revenue. 

"When it became known that export taxes were 
in contemplation, I received a request for an in- 
terview from a lawyer, and when he came he 
brought with him a stack of books, all, he informed 
me, the highest authorities on economics and taxa- 
tion, in order to prove that export taxes were im- 
possible. 'Neither Great Britain, nor France, nor 
Germany nor the United States, uses the export tax,' 
he said. 'It is contrary to the policy of all civilized 
countries.' 

"It was in vain that I pointed out to him that the 
countries he named exported chiefly manufactured 
goods, not raw materials, and that our country dif- 
fered in all respects from the economic needs of 
the powers he named. 

"He went away despairing of the future of 
Mexico, and convinced that it was useless to argue 
with a man who couldn't see reason. 

"Ten years from now, he may be able to realize 
that we were right, for we obtained a large and 
necessary increase of revenue in a way which the 
people have hardly felt." 

On the same excellent authority I am able to say 
that the increase in the federal revenues during the 
last three months has been so great as to inspire new 
confidence throughout the administration. 

To illustrate the importance of this one reform, 
[185] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

the taxation of exports, I quote from reports of our 
Department of Commerce at Washington, the state- 
ment that imports from Mexico to the United States 
for the last fiscal year were $140,000,000 and ex- 
ports from the United States to Mexico during the 
same period were $106,893,653. There has been 
a steady upward trend since 1912, when, accord- 
ing to the same authority, our imports from Mexico 
were only $65,915,313, and our exports to Mexico 
$52,847,129. In 1913 Mexico drew 48 per cent, 
of its imports from the United States, and sent in 
exchange 76 per cent, of its imports, and this pro- 
portion for the subsequent years has steadily grown 
in our favour. 

In a message to Congress in 1918, President Car- 
ranza announced that the Government had been able 
to cover "all indispensable expenditures" out of the 
federal revenues. In 1917 the congress had ap- 
proved a budget of 187,000,000 pesos. The 
budget, according to President Carranza's statement 
to the chamber of deputies, Sept. 26, 1918, should 
be based on a prospective income of $149,384 
pesos, of which I give the most important items: 

Import duties $25,000,000 

Export duties 14,000,000 

Federal contributions (from the 

several states of the Republic) . . . 31,000,000 
[186] 



FINANCE AND THE BANKS 

General stamp taxes 13,000,000 

Duties on gold, silver, etc 13,000,000 

Petroleum lands 7,000,000 

Petroleum 12,000,000 

While the Government is paying its way, and 
may be able to do much better in the future, it 
must be admitted that payment of interest on 
foreign loans has not been met. The treasury de- 
partment figured that as the Government was wholly 
dependent upon immediate income, actual running 
expenses must first be met, and that it was better to 
pay the interest in part only, and until better times 
were at hand. 

There has been no disposition, however, to repu- 
diate any legitimate claims. It is true that at the 
beginning of the Constitutionalist Government it 
was resolved to repudiate all the loans Huerta 
might have made abroad, but, to again quote Pres- 
ident Carranza's message to congress: 

"Nevertheless, the Constitutionalist Government 
does not shirk the recognition of all legitmate obli- 
gations contracted previous to the revolution, and 
consequently considers as outstanding the debts 
covered by Huerta's administration with bonds or 
funds acquired by means of unlawful loans." 

The amount of the public debt at the beginning 
of 1913 was approximately 427,000,000 pesos, and 
up to the beginning of the present year, interest due 
[187] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

and pending payment to date approximated 75,- 
000,000. 

The four years' struggle before the Constitu- 
tionalist Government came into its own cost Mexico 
about 125,000,000 pesos of debt, of which the 
items are: 

Paper money to be redeemed at 10 per 

cent, gold 80,000,000 

Vera Cruz paper money 5,000,000 

Loans from banks 20,000,000 

Debts and amounts due employes .... 20,000,000 

Aside then, from the claims of the railways, 
which I propose to discuss later, the national debt 
of Mexico may be stated at 627,000,000 pesos, the 
greater part of which is at 5 per cent. Pesos have 
been and are now two for a dollar, so that reckoned 
in our currency, the obligations might be discharged 
for $313,500,000, a sum which would be astonish- 
ingly small for a nation of 14,000,000 souls in 
normal condition and in times of peace. And 
Mexico's internal troubles lasted nearly a decade. 

Maintenance of the army has naturally been the 
largest item of expense up to the present time, and 
will continue to be so until the few remaining 
"istas" are wiped out. The cost of civil war in con- 
trast to civil government is strikingly shown in 
figures supplied by the general treasury covering 
[188] 



FINANCE AND THE BANKS 



the revolution's disbursements from the beginning 
of General Carranza's struggle against Huerta up 
to 1917, following his election as president of the 
republic. The total receipts for taxes collected by 
the treasury in this period were pesos 75,000,000 
gold and 236,000,000 paper. The disbursements 
were pesos 95,417,400 gold and 855,818,900 
paper. The war department received pesos 61,- 
554,096 gold and 656,800,958 paper. 

Material reduction has already been effected 
in the cost of the war department, so as to leave ad- 
ditional funds for agricultural development and 
public works, and figures to be presented at the as- 
sembling of the Congress in April next may be ex- 
pected to give receipts and expenses in detail. And 
it is to be noted that the six months ended as this 
book goes to press have been both as to the extent of 
foreign trade and governmental income, the most 
prosperous in the history of Mexico. 



[189] 



CHAPTER SIXTEEN: RAILWAYS AND 
NATIONALIZATION 

When I wrote in discussing Mexican finance that 
for the time being the railway interests here were 
"no worse off for the moment than in our own 
country," I had in mind, of course, the owners of 
stocks and bonds. Their property is in the hands 
of the Government, and is badly in need of repairs, 
improvements and new rolling stock, but it is a 
definite and valuable property for which the Gov- 
ernment has given guarantees, and which must in- 
crease in value during the reconstruction period, for 
the natural wealth of this country is inexhaustible, 
and, under whatever government, the railways are 
essential to its development. Repairs and improve- 
ments are underway, new rolling stock has actually 
been purchased in the United States, machine and 
repair shops have been established, and it must be 
remembered that during the war, our Government 
almost crippled itself in the endeavour to supply 
railway material to France, and was not in position 
to supply the necessities of a neutral nation. 

Where else was Mexico to buy? 

I assume that the U. S. Treasury has been meet- 
[190] 



RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION 

ing interest on railway securities promptly. I feel 
convinced that the Mexican treasury will do so at 
the earliest possible moment. I assume that the 
return of the railways to private ownership in the 
United States the terms and the time, is still an 
open question. The tendency in Mexico during 
the last twenty years has been to nationalize rails, 
and the experience of the last few years has 
strengthened this tendency, and I see no manifesta- 
tion of an inclination there to revert to private 
ownership. 

Most of us can recall that when the revolution 
took possession of all railways in Mexico there was 
an outcry throughout the money markets of the 
world. Shareholders and bondholders alike were 
alarmed at what they regarded as confiscation of 
private property. The foreign investments were 
large enough to justify strong diplomatic represen- 
tations, in which Great Britain, France and the 
United States, all took part. 

But when our country took over the railways as a 
matter of military necessity, it was with the assent 
of people, press, and politicians. 

If government control of rails was necessary in 
a foreign war, and if Mr. McAdoo was right in 
urging a continuation "for experimental purposes" 
of government control for a five year period after 
the war, perhaps Mexico, facing the difficulties of 
civil war, was justified in seizing the rails. Per- 
[191] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

haps she is right is declining to consider a return to 
private ownership until Villa, Pelaez, and Felix 
Diaz have definitely retired from business. 

However, conditions here and at home differed 
widely. Railway development in Mexico began 
during the rule of Porfirio Diaz, under concessions 
he granted to private companies. In most cases 
these concessions provided for the automatic return 
of the roads to the Government after ninety years, 
on compensation for rolling stock, buildings and 
materials on hand at the date of transfer. 

The Government began buying stock in the three 
most important lines toward the close of the last 
century, and in 1906, having united the three most 
important lines under the name of the National 
Railways of Mexico, and owning 50.3 per cent, of 
the stock, extended its control over other roads. 

In 1910, when President Diaz retired, the Govern- 
ment owned or controlled 8,200 miles of track. 
There remained under private ownership 7,800 
miles, of which 3,000 was local narrow gauge of 
relatively small importance. To be exact the Gov- 
ernment was a majority stockholder in a system 
comprising the National Railroad of Mexico, the 
Mexican International, the Hidalgo and North- 
eastern, the Vera Cruz and Isthmus, the Pan-Ameri- 
can, the Mexican Southern, and operated the In- 
teroceanic Railway of Mexico under lease. Most 
of the stock not Government owned was held by 
[192] 



1 



RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION 

Americans, who were also interested largely in all 
other important lines. 

In 1902 it was estimated by the American consul 
general that 70 per cent, of the $500,000,000 
American capital invested in Mexico was in rail- 
roads. Five years later, according to our Depart- 
ment of Labour and Commerce, the American in- 
vestments had grown to $750,000,000, of which 
two-thirds was in rails. 

By 1912, Consul Marion Letcher, at Chihuahua, 
estimated the total American investments in Mexico 
at $1,057,770,000, and British investment at 
$321,303,000. 

According to his figures railroad investments 
were as follows: 

American capital $235,464,000 

British capital 81,238,000 

Mexican capital 125,000,000 

Holdings in railroad bonds: 

American capital $408,926,000 

British capital 87,680,000 

Mexican capital 12,275,000 

But while Mr. Letcher's figures are generally ac- 
cepted as correct in regard to the amount of Ameri- 
can, British and Mexican capital invested in rails, 
he appears to have overlooked the fact that the 
French have invested $143,466,000 in Mexico, 
[193] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

and that of this sum, $17,000,000 is in railway 
bonds. 

The total holdings of all other countries in Mexi- 
can rails is $75,000 in stocks, and $38,535,380 in 
bonds. The Mexican figures in the above tabula- 
tion are representative of private capital only. 

What happened to the railways, however, is told 
thus by President Carranza in a message to 
congress: 

"Since the First Chief entered the capital, the 
Government has felt the necessity of taking over 
some of the principal railway lines of the country, 
not only for the purpose of moving troops, pro- 
visions, arms and ammunitions promptly and at 
the proper time, but also to facilitate the necessary 
means of coumunication and transportation to the 
people in the territories occupied by the Constitu- 
tional forces. 

"But when the revolution triumphed and rebel 
bands of importance were disbanded, I thought the 
time had arrived for returning these lines to their 
former owners, and, therefore, began by relinquish- 
ing the railway line running from this capital to 
Vera Cruz, known as the Mexican Railway. 

"Since the railway was returned to its owners, 
developments have demonstrated that they are un- 
able to keep it in service, as they could not prevent 
frequent assaults on trains by small bands of 
bandits. As it is of vital importance that this line 
[194] 



RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION 

be kept in operation and that passengers be pro- 
tected, I have deemed it absolutely necessary to 
again take it over, and have appointed as its 
manager Lieutenant Colonel Paulino Fontes, who 
will carry on the administration independently from 
the other lines that make up the National Railway 
System. 

"The First Chief has also just ordered the taking 
over of the National Tehuantepec Railway, ap- 
pointing Mr. Rosendo Mauri, as manager. 

"Finally, the attachment of the Alvarado to the 
Vera Cruz Railway, and the Terminal Station at 
Vera Cruz have been decreed." 

I hold no brief for the Mexican Government in 
the matter of its railway administration or anything 
else, nor am I about to make an appeal on behalf 
of American capital, but I have tried to explain 
control here where the Government is hard pressed 
for money, in the light of control in our own 
country, which is the richest in the world. 

After making the above explanation of his mo- 
tives in taking over the railroads, President Car- 
ranza admitted that the National Railways of 
Mexico were "debtors for capital and interest ma- 
tured up to the first of July (1917) for the sum of 
71,388,790.26 pesos." Doubtless this sum has 
been considerably increased, as net earnings of 
the railways appear to be devoted to the expenses 
of Government, and the payment of interest has not 
[195] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

been regarded as an "indispensable expenditure" 
for the time being. But the President added : 

"The Mexican Government is responsible for part 
of that sum, which is that representing the interest 
on the 4 per cent, guarantee bonds of general 
mortgage of the National Railways, in accordance 
with the organization plan of said company and the 
decree of July 6, 1907, and which will up to the first 
of July of the present year (1917) amount to the 
sum of $6,089,829, U. S. currency. 

"This debt has been created by the impossibility 
of the company meeting such obligations, owing to 
the attachment of its lines in accordance with the 
dispositions of the railway law, and it possesses 
legal status derived from the obligations contracted 
by the Mexican Government towards the holders of 
the bonds of the above referred general mortgage." 

Included in the roads taken over by the Govern- 
ment are: 

Southern Pacific Railway of Mexico, which owns 
1,341 miles of track, and is still operated through 
the American management representing the owners. 

Mexican and Northwestern Railway Company, 
which controls 496 miles of track between El Paso 
and Chihuahua, or did until the "patriotic" Villistas 
wrecked it. Owned by British capital. 

Mexico City and Vera Cruz road, built by British 
capital and operating 402 miles of track between 
port and capital. 

[196] 



RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION 

The American owned Kansas City, Mexico and 
Orient Railway, with 349 miles of track has not 
changed hands. 

The director general of the Constitutionalist rail- 
ways was an engineer, Alberto J. Pani, who was 
also secretary of commerce, industry and labour in 
President Carranza's cabinet. His last budget for 
repairs disclosed the following items, the figures 
standing for pesos: tracks, 27,393,617; in which 
are included the purchase of 16,000 cross ties, 
86,671 tons of rails, tools, etc.; repair and recon- 
struction of buildings, 2,774,000; bridges, 8,558,- 
000,048; new rolling stock, 5,000,000; repair of 
rolling stock now in use, 4,000,000, new fuel 
stations, 769,000; small buildings, loading stations, 
fences, etc., 379,000. The total bill would be on 
this estimate 31,873,665 pesos. 

On the recommendation of the President, con- 
gress authorized a foreign loan of 300,000,000 
pesos for the purpose of rehabilitating the railways, 
and of establishing a new national bank of issue, 
but up to this time the money markets of the world 
have been disinclined to make favourable terms, 
and the loan has not been consummated. 

There is a probability, also that the matters of 
rails and banks will not be lumped together next 
time, which leads me to note that while I make no 
claim to special knowledge of banking matters, I 
seem to have acquired more information in a week 
[197] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

than some of our largest banks possess, and that it 
is my duty to pass it along. 

Finding only metallic money in use in Mexico 
City, I wished to open a small checking account, 
as a matter of convenience, and took the letter of 
credit issued by one of the best known banking 
houses in New York to the institution named in its 
printed list of correspondents. 

Probably I was the only caller that day at the 
palatial offices of the Banco de Londres y Mexico. 
They seemed deserted, although an office force re- 
mained in possession, a very small office force in- 
deed. Finally the manager presented himself, and 
explained that to his deep regret he could do noth- 
ing for me. 

Was there any disposition to question either my 
identity, or the credit of my New York banker? 

Not the slightest, but it seemed incredible that 
the so well known New York house should not be 
aware that for a period of six years the Government 
had not permitted the bank to transact business. I 
would do well to make myself known elsewhere, for 
example at the offices of the Bank of Montreal, 
Avenida 5 de Mayo. 

Profiting by this excellent advice, I made myself 
known to the Bank of Montreal, where I speedily 
transferred dollars from a letter of credit into 
pesos at a much better discount than the peso and 
ninety centavos I had been obliged to accept in 
[198] 



J 



RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION 

Vera Cruz, and was provided with a pass-book and 
check-book, such as we use at home, only, of 
course, with Spanish substituted for the English 
language. I was informed that a stamp must be 
affixed to all checks under 100 pesos to the value of 
five centavos, and to the value of ten centavos for 
each 100 pesos on checks for larger amounts. 

And then I learned that there were two small but 
sound private American banks in the capital, a 
strong German bank, and plenty of other banks 
representing foreign or domestic interests. This 
aroused my curiosity regarding the "London Bank." 
I turned to the treasury of information I have so 
often quoted, President Carranza's speech to con- 
gress in 1917, where I found this explanation: 

"Commencing with General Diaz's Government, 
the banking system of Mexico, placed on a con- 
cessionary basis, implied a system of privilege, the 
defects of which had been apparent a long time. 

"The banks of issue of Mexico loaned to Huerta's 
Government to help it in its struggle against the 
Constitutionalist Government, approximately forty 
six and a half million pesos. Huerta decreed, in 
exchange, the obligatory circulation of their bills, 
which the constitutionalist government found still 
in circulation upon occupying the city of Mexico. 

"The Constitutionalist Government, busy with 
other details of the campaign, could not immedi- 
ately take up banking matters, notwithstanding the 
[199] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

fact that it was notorious that the banks were its 
financially powerful enemies. 

"The banks could not, on the other hand, re- 
establish the obligatory circulation of their bills, 
as, even if some of them held their reserves prac- 
tically intact had they been required to redeem 
their bills at par, they would have been obliged to 
enter into liquidation. 

"Inasmuch as the Government did not wish the 
large sums in metallic reserves massed by and 
stored in the banks to disappear, it preferred to take 
certain measures to prevent these amounts from be- 
ing disposed of. To this effect a decree was issued, 
ordering the banks to complete their reserves. As 
this disposition did not obtain the desired results 
it became necessary for the Government to order 
the attachment of the banks. This was effected 
practically by merely placing the management of 
these institutions in the hands of an attachment 
board. 

"The banking problem is still unsolved, for, al- 
though the constituent congress decreed the estab- 
lishment of a national bank of issue, the definite 
standing of the banks has not and cannot be de- 
termined until the national bank of issue, which is 
designed to replace all other banking institutions, 
can be placed in operation. 

" Forced by circumstances, the Constitutionalist 
Government was obliged to draw from the banks ap- 
[200] 



i 



RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION 

proximately twenty million pesos, to cover its needs. 
This represents a debt toward the banks which the 
Government has assumed and recognized as a loan 
on short terms, and for which it is ready to offer a 
sufficient guarantee. I desire to call the attention 
of Congress to the fact that the Government drew 
money from the banks' reserves only when paper 
money became absolutely discredited and could not 
be circulated. 

"I must point out also that the National Bank of 
Mexico and the Bank of London and Mexico alone 
loaned the usurper twenty million pesos." 



[201] 



CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: PETROLEUM 
AND POLITICS 

Primarily petroleum has been a political prob- 
lem in Mexico, and still is. That one of the 
greatest sources of Mexico's natural wealth should 
be exploited exclusively for the benefit of 
foreigners, especially at a time when the Govern- 
ment needs funds for reconstruction purposes, is an 
absurdity quite obvious. Some form of taxation 
must be devised by which petroleum shall pay its 
share toward the common weal, and this can be 
achieved without conflict between Mexican and 
American interests when the political issue has been 
disposed of. 

It is frequently said by the enemies of General 
Carranza, both in Mexico and at home, that he 
"backed the wrong horse" in the world war. This 
criticism would be well founded if applied to the 
oil interests at Tampico. They backed Villa to 
win, and at the quarter he may have been a nose 
ahead, but the race is over, and Villa is hidden in 
a cloud of dust among the "also rans." 

Legislation based on the new constitution will 
eliminate the retroactive features of Article 27, 
which, as it now stands, appears to confiscate the 
[202] 



PETROLEUM AND POLITICS 
» 

property of the oil interests. In a word, Mexico 

will claim all future oil discoveries as the nation's 

property, without disturbing the private ownership 

of oil fields now in operation. Let Article 27, 

which I quote, speak for itself, but I am reminded 

of the question sometimes asked in our own glorious 

republic. "What is the constitution between 

friends?" 

"The ownership of lands and waters comprised 
within the limits of the national territory is vested 
originally in the nation, which had, and has, the 
right to transmit title thereof to private persons, 
thereby constituting private property. 

"Private property shall not be expropriated ex- 
cept for reasons of public utility and by means of 
indemnification. 

"The nation shall have at all times the right to 
impose on private property such limitations as the 
public interest may demand as well as the right to 
regulate the development of natural resources, 
which are susceptible of appropriation, in order 
to conserve them and equitably to distribute the 
public wealth. For this purpose necessary 
measures shall be taken to divide large landed 
estates; to develop small landed holdings; to 
establish new centres of rural population with such 
lands and waters as may be indispensable to them; 
to encourage agriculture and to prevent the destruc- 
tion of natural resources, and to protect property 
[203] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

from damage detrimental to society. Settlements, 
hamlets situated on private property and communes 
which lack lands or water or do not possess them in 
sufficient quantities for their needs shall have the 
right to be provided with them from the adjoining 
properties, always having due regard for small 
landed holdings. Wherefore, all grants of lands 
made up to the present time under the decree of 
January 6, 1915, are confirmed. Private property 
acquired for the said purposes shall be considered 
as taken for public utility. 

"In the nation is vested direct ownership of all 
minerals or substances which in veins, layers, 
masses, or beds constitute deposits whose nature is 
different from the components of the land, such as 
minerals from which metals and metaloids used 
for industrial purposes are extracted; beds of 
precious stones, rock salt, and salt lakes formed 
directly by marine waters, products derived from 
the decomposition of rocks, when their exploitation 
requires underground work; phosphates which may 
be used as fertilizers; solid mineral fuels; petro- 
leum and all hydrocarbons — solid liquid or 
gaseous. . . . The ownership of the nation is in- 
alienable and may not be lost by prescription; con- 
cessions shall be granted by the Federal Govern- 
ment to private parties or civil or commercial cor- 
porations organized under the laws of Mexico, only 
on condition that said resources be regularly de- 
[204] 



PETROLEUM AND POLITICS 

veloped, and on the further condition that the legal 
provisions be observed." 

Article 27 likewise declares public ownership of 
inland waters, prohibits churches from owning real 
property, irrespective of creed, and declares all 
such property to be that of the nation. It likewise 
defines other real property rights of national, but 
not international interest. 

The regular session of the Mexican congress is 
expected during the winter of 1919-20 to enact 
laws which will put Article 27 into effect, but with- 
out injustice either to the church or to the petroleum 
concessionaires. 

The Mexican view of Article 27 is based on the 
old Spanish law of real property. The American 
view is based on the old English law of real 
property, by which the owner in fee is proprietor 
not only of the surface soil, but of all that is be- 
neath, as of the air above. From the American 
viewpoint mining coal or iron or gold or silver or 
coal would not be justified beyond the territory to 
which operator had a legal right. But if by sink- 
ing a well, a man drained a vast territory rich in 
natural gas or oil quite beyond the boundaries of 
his own property, he would be within his legal 
rights, and an uncommonly lucky chap, much to 
be envied. 

Spanish land grants conveyed merely the sur- 
face soil, suitable for agriculture, reserving 
[205] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

mineral rights to the state. Coal, natural gas and 
petroleum were not specifically included because 
their value was unknown. 

But if mineral oil is as great a source of wealth 
as ore, is it not logical to apply the legal principles 
governing mines in general? From the Mexican 
point of view it would be inconsistent to do other- 
wise, hence there is no probability that the Govern- 
ment here will recede from the application of 
Article 27 to future petroleum developments. But 
I doubt if it was ever seriously intended to con- 
fiscate the existing and developed oil fields. That 
feature of Article 27 was political. 

The new constitution was signed and promulgated 
at Queretaro de Arteaga, January 31, 1917. It 
contains many radical features of which certain 
of the First Chief's wisest advisers disapproved, but 
which they were obliged to accept. General Car- 
ranza's power was not established on the firm basis 
now achieved, and the oil interests, although subject 
to the First Chief's customs authorities in Tampico, 
had set up a state within a state in the oil jungle, 
commanded by "General" Manuel Pelaez and 
"General" Enriquez, who pretended to hold 
subordinate authority from Villa, and who were 
therefore and are, rebels in the eyes of the then 
First Chief of the Constitutionalists, now President 
of the United States of Mexico. 
[206] 



PETROLEUM AND POLITICS 

The oil interests justified themselves not only 
to themselves but to their Governments, by repre- 
senting that it was necessary to maintain the se- 
curity of their establishments, that Mexico's at- 
titude toward the United States and the Allies was 
doubtful, that they had no concern with Mexican 
politics, that their business was to produce and ship 
oil, and if it was necessary to pay two conflicting 
sets of officials in order to do business, they were 
still obliged to do business. 

I have heard it said in my own country that cor- 
porations are soulless things, organized to make 
money. Perhaps they are soulless. Certainly 
they sometimes lack vision, for what happened in 
the Mexican oil fields is precisely what happened 
some years ago in the Santo Domingo cane fields 
though on a much larger scale. American capital 
had developed a great sugar estate, and was prepar- 
ing to put in a mill. Even a small sugar mill 
in these days costs $1,000,000 or more. What the 
management desired above all things was security, 
so when a local political chieftain offered to 
establish a guard to prevent bandits from destroying 
the property, his offer was accepted. 

The guard consisted first of half a dozen ragged 

fellows, who soon grew slick from good feeding, 

and began to assume an air of importance in the 

neighbourhood. In due course the guard became 

[207] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

an army, and its chief a "General," and the whole 
outfit equally a nuisance to the Government and to 
the American sugar planters. 

It was a cancerous growth which required a 
capital operation, this little "army" built up by 
American capital. In Santo Domingo City the 
"General" was referred to as a bandit, and a force 
of Marines was sent out to put him out of business. 
The "General" asserted that on his word of honour 
he was not a bandit but a patriot. That made no 
difference. Both "General" and "army" were 
exterminated. 

In Tampico the "army" has had the same mush- 
room growth. Two years ago Carl W. Ackerman 
wrote, apparently on information derived from the 
oil men themselves: 

"Pelaez and his army — estimated at 3,000 to 
27,000 men, depending upon the authority quoted 
— get $40,000 a month protection money from the 
oil companies. Carranza gets $100,000, in taxes 
every month from the Standard Oil Company; 
$200,000 a month from the Huasteca Petroleum 
Company, and more from the Lord Cowdray in- 
terests. The oil producers maintain Pelaez, his 
soldiers and his government, and they contribute 
more than any other foreign interest toward the 
revenues of the present Mexican government." 

The retroactive feature of Article 27 was in retal- 
iation. It was in line with a decree issued by the 
[208] 



PETROLEUM AND POLITICS 

Constitutionalist Government in August, 1914, 
establishing a petroleum department, invalidating 
all oil transactions made during Huerta's admini- 
stration, and with the assumption of Government 
control of oil production decreed in Vera Cruz, 
January 7, 1915. A petroleum commission was 
created for technical study, and it is an open secret 
that the Government has been conducting explora- 
tions for oil on its own account for several years. 

Concessions granted to Robleda Coss y Brito for 
the exclusive privileges of exploiting petroleum 
in four zones of 100 kilometers each in the States 
of Taumalipas and Vera Cruz were cancelled. The 
same action was taken regarding concessions to De 
la Barra y Bringas in the State of Chiapas, and the 
Aguila Oil Co., S. A. (Cowdray's Mexican Eagle 
Co.). At the same time five concessions were 
granted for laying pipe lines for public use, and 
three pipe lines for private use. Concessions for 
the establishment of refineries and the extension 
of those already in use were granted to the Huasteca 
Petroleum Co. (Doheny) and the Aguila Oil Co., 
but steps were taken to put a stop to speculation 
in "wildcat" companies by the imposition of heavy 
inspection fees. More than 100 of these com- 
panies speedily disappeared. 

Enough has been written to show that President 
Carranza has been making earnest efforts to control 
the oil industry, and why he has repeatedly de- 
[209] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

nounced the oil corporations for their association 
with rebels and opposition to the established Gov- 
ernment. 

Perhaps the origin has been disclosed of the Car- 
ranza doctrine, the essential points of which are : 

No nation should intervene in any form or for 
any reason in the affairs of another. 

Nationals and aliens should be equal before the 
sovereignty of the country in which they reside. 

Diplomacy should not serve to protect private 
interests. 

It should be borne in mind that every oil con- 
cession has been made with a condition to which the 
concessionaires pledged themselves, that they should 
be regarded as Mexican citizens, with no right to 
diplomatic appeal. 

Opposed to the Mexican official view regarding 
the retroactive features of Article 27, the position 
of the United States was voiced in a protest from 
Ambassador Fletcher, April 2, 1918, in which he 
said: 

"The United States cannot acquiesce in any pro- 
cedure ostensibly or nominally in the form of 
taxation or the exercise of eminent domain, but 
really resulting in confiscation of private property 
and arbitrary deprivation of vested rights." 

Similar protests were sent by Great Britain, 
France and the Netherlands, whose "vested rights" 
[210] 



PETROLEUM AND POLITICS 

were concerned. Of the powers named, Great 
Britain is the only one largely represented in the 
oil fields at this time, her investments being 
estimated at $100,000,000, as against $200,- 
000,000 of American capital. It is doubtful if the 
powers chiefly concerned are in complete accord 
as to diplomatic action here with regard to petro- 
leum interests, but once the ownership of the oil 
fields held by foreign corporations is legitimated, 
the political phase of the oil problem will vanish. 

There remains to be considered the future of 
Mexican petroleum production. It is boundless. 
During the first year of exploitation by the Doheny- 
Canfield company in the jungle to the west of Tam- 
pico, 1901, the production of oil was 10,343 
barrels. In 1917 it had reached 55,000,000 bar- 
rels. A conservative estimate gives the capacity of 
the Mexican oil fields now partly exploited at 250,- 
000,000 per annum. 

No one in Mexico is so foolish as to believe that 
the fields in the five districts now shipping oil 
represent Mexico's entire wealth in petroleum. 
These districts are Ebano, forty miles west of Tam- 
pico ; the Panuco, which includes the Topila region ; 
the Huasteca, south of Tampico, the Tuxpan, in- 
cluding the Furbero region, and Tehuantepec-Ta- 
basco, in none of which is development complete. 

These figures mean, if they mean anything, that 
[211] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

Mexico will be the greatest oil producing country 
in the world. Heretofore she has ranked third, the 
United States coming first, Russia second. 

Do they mean also that, with oil fields to be dis- 
covered hereafter the property of the Government, 
of the nation, the United States of Mexico will be 
the world's richest republic? 

Quien sabe? 



1 



[212] 



CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE OIL MEN'S 
VERSION 

To say that the oil men of Tampico are between 
the Devil and the deep blue sea is quite literal. 
The Devil is anarchy. On the land side there 
are two lines of rail communication, one leading to 
San Luis Potosi, the other to Monterey, both im- 
portant cities on the main highway from Laredo to 
Mexico City. Twice within the last ten days I 
spent in Mexico the northerly route to Monterey 
was interrupted by bandits. The first time the 
train from Tampico was blown up some forty kilo- 
meters from that city. The passengers were not 
injured, but were robbed, and their luggage either 
stolen or burned. One American woman long resi- 
dent in Tampico says that fourteen soldiers were 
killed on this train while attempting to defend it 
from the bandits, and that the commanding officer 
of the guard, who had entered the "first class" car, 
was so near her when he fell with a bullet through 
his heart, that her clothing was stained with his 
blood. 

Having lost all her outfit, she returned to Tam- 
pico, and started north next day. Again the train 
[213] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

on which she was a passenger was dynamited, and 
also the train to Tampico from Monterey, but no 
details filtered in as to the loss of life or property 
during my brief sojourn. 

Communication between Tampico and San Luis 
Potosi has not been stopped, but is far from safe. 

When I asked an oil man in Tampico why, on 
first attack on a train they had not cut off the black- 
mail levied by Pelaez, in which event he would have 
been wiped off the map several years ago, the reply 
came promptly that they paid Pelaez to protect 
their oil camps, and had no concern with what 
happened elsewhere. 

"What would happen if you refused to contri- 
bute further to this outlaw?" 

"Well, you see, he isn't an outlaw, but a revolu- 
tionist. Probably if he failed to get his money 
he would blow up our properties. He is an oil 
owner himself, and guards our camps with his men 
just as he guards his own property." 

"But he doesn't guard his own property very 
well," I said. "Federal troops recently captured 
his archives covering the last three years, and when 
I left President Carranza at Queretaro a week ago, 
he was going over these records with much enjoy- 
ment." 

Getting a man's office records, and getting the 
man himself were two very different things, the oil 
[214] 



THE OIL MEN'S VERSION 



man thought, and all efforts to capture Pelaez 
would fail. 

I had the pleasure of meeting a representative 
gathering of oil men, called for the purpose of pre- 
senting their side of the petroleum controversy. It 
was interrupted by a late comer with the news that 
bandits had just captured a payroll of the Huesteca 
Oil Company, after shooting two Americans and 
one Mexican who were guarding it, and as this little 
episode took place in the neutral zone, beyond the 
lines held by the Federal Government, and near 
the zone commanded by Pelaez, it seemed to me 
that "the King of the Oil Fields" must be tottering 
on his throne. 

Enough of anarchy on the land side. 

To the periodista from the States who had seen 
peaceful and prosperous Mexico under the rule of 
President Carranza, it seemed reasonably clear that 
safety lay in the deep blue sea, personified in 
the river by one Mexican and two American war 
vessels. 

It was agreed at the conference with the oil men 
that no names should be used. They said with the 
utmost frankness that they had nothing to hope for 
either from Washington or Mexico City, and that 
whatever they might say would be used against 
them. 

With no desire to increase the difficulties of a 
[215] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

position already untenable, I agreed to suppress 
names, but pointed out to them that what I might 
say on their behalf would carry much less weight 
than if they said it themselves, taking full responsi- 
bility, and that a round robin could be drawn up 
which would divide this responsibility equally 
among all present. 

"There is no way in which we can present our 
side except this," the spokesman replied. "So 
long as the gentleman now in Paris remains at the 
head of the American Government it is useless for 
an American citizen in a foreign land to demand 
either redress or protection, and anything we say 
will be construed against us. We know this. We 
have tried to get a hearing in Washington, but with- 
out success. 

"We are American citizens engaged in a patriotic 
duty. We have come into Mexico to develop the 
country, and we are doing it. Every dollar we 
have made is the result of hard labour intelligently 
applied. We have risked our lives as well as our 
fortunes down here, and while we have built up a 
great industry, and have made a city, the expenses 
of operating are so great that despite the vast 
amount of oil shipped we would all be ruined to- 
morrow if our plants shut down, as the investments 
exceed the profits to date." 

"Is there any truth in the rumour that the Tampico 
oil field is beginning to show signs of exhaustion?" 
[216] 



THE OIL MEN'S VERSION 



"There are some symptoms of a decrease in the 
flow, and we have had experts at work for some 
time in the expectation that the supply can be nursed 
along for years to come. The Government, too, has 
been making a study of the situation, but while we 
are uncertain as to the future, we are still looking 
forward to new developments if the Mexican Con- 
gress legalizes our ownership of property we have 
already bought and paid for." 

"Mexican officials say that the petroleum law 
presented at the last Congress by President Car- 
ranza will be re-introduced, and that the confis- 
catory features of the new constitution will be elimi- 
nated, so that on all property purchased prior to the 
date on which the new constitution became effective 
your titles will be absolute. This is to be effected 
by means of an amendment to which Mr. Carranza 
will consent. There will also be an amendment 
providing for additional protection to owners of the 
surface soil, but the Government will not recede 
from its position that all future oil fields discovered 
shall be the property of the republic. Is there any 
reason why you cannot operate under the new law 
in extending your production?" 

"We will not do any new business under such a 
law," said the spokesman, who represents one of the 
larger American oil corporations. 

"It seems to me that you are going too far there," 
interrupted a man who is among the most important 
[217] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

of the individual owners. "I have no objection 
to doing business under the new constitution, pro- 
vided the royalties fixed are such that I can make 
a profit. In fact I have no objection to the new 
law in its application to all future oil transactions, 
although I agree that it would be a crime to take 
our properties from us after we have paid for the 
land and developed it at our own expense." 

"It is possible," the spokesman resumed, "that 
some of you may be able to operate under the new 
law, but to make the attempt would, from our point 
of view, mean placing full reliance upon the 
promises of the Carranza people, and what we want 
from them is not promises but performances. Our 
experience thus far with the Government in Mexico 
City is quite as unsatisfactory as our experience 
with Washington, and we feel that we have nothing 
definite from either source upon which to base our 
course." 

"Does it not seem possible to you that the Mexi- 
can Government resents the support the oil interests 
are giving to Pelaez? Would it not be easier to 
come to terms with Mr. Carranza, and to obtain the 
backing of the United States in support of your 
claims if you rid yourself of this Old Man of the 
Sea?" 

"Not at all. Pelaez is our friend. We would 
like to see him president of Mexico, and if he were, 
[218] 



THE OIL MEN'S VERSION 



we would get what we want. We have never had 
any assistance or encouragement from Mr. Car- 
ranza any more than we have from Mr. Wilson, and 
it would be folly on our part to turn down Pelaez, 
even if we could, to please either of them. Be- 
sides, the State Department at Washington is per- 
fectly aware as to our relations with Pelaez, and 
has approved them from the beginning. Wash- 
ington knows to a penny what we have paid and are 
paying Pelaez, and has never interposed any 
objection." 

(An oil man testified before the Fall Committee 
that Acting Secretary Polk had been told of the 
arrangement with Pelaez, but the State Department 
has no record of this arrangement having been ap- 
proved.) 

"But even if Washington does not object to the 
payments to Pelaez, what is there to prevent you 
from cutting them off now, when he is obviously 
failing to give you the protection for which you 
are paying?" 

"We are so situated that this man could destroy 
millions in property, and if we cut off his revenues 
he probably would do so. It is better to let things 
continue as they are rather than to court destruc- 
tion." 

"But do not these heavy payments in graft eat 
into your profits?" 

[219] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

"We have no profits. We are able to keep things 
going, but I can't say how much longer we will be 
able to do so." 

"This is a most surprising statement. How is 
it that if the American oil interests in Tampico 
have failed to make a profit the Cowdray people 
were able to declare a 25 per cent, dividend for 
1918?" 

"I don't see how Cowdray could possibly have 
earned such a large amount last year. Of course 
he has certain advantages in shipping and market- 
ing his products, which would account for a better 
business showing than we could make, but 25 per 
cent, must be an exaggerated estimate." 

"Suppose I tell you that the figures are from the 
company's report published in the London 
Economist?'^ 

"That authority would not be questioned of 
course, but the fact remains that we are not making 
any money here, but are hanging on upon the theory 
that after the lean years there will be a succession 
of fat years. With proper encouragement from 
people at home, and protection from the Mexican 
Government, there is no reason why we should not 
eventually reap the reward of our labours here. 
There are times, however, when we have been so 
heartily disgusted that we have been on the point 
of giving up, and pulling out of the country. In 
fact, I so advised my people some time ago. I told 
[220] 



THE OIL MEN'S VERSION 



them it would be better to pocket their losses and 
close up." 

"What losses would there be?" 

"The scrapping of a plant that has cost millions, 
and the impossibility of converting anything we 
have here into real money upon our withdrawal." 

It was the sense of the conference that unless the 
Mexican Government actually carried out its 
promises regarding the elimination of the retro- 
active features in the new constitution regarding 
the ownership of oil discoveries, the situation as 
regards Mexico would be quite hopeless, that an 
appeal for protection or assistance from Wash- 
ington would be equally hopeless, and some of 
the grievances of the oil men against both Govern- 
ments were thus outlined: 

Washington, at the time of the Vera Cruz epi- 
sode, instead of helping the Americans in Tampico, 
ordered the two naval vessels then in port to sea, 
leaving the Americans at the mercy of a mob which 
was parading up and down the streets, shouting 
"Death to the Gringoes!" 

Washington apparently held to the view that Mr. 
Taft had given ample warning to Americans to get 
out of Mexico, and had assisted those who needed 
aid, and that if any were foolish enough to remain 
behind after this warning, it was their duty to take 
care of themselves. 

While no one was actually injured during this 
[221] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

demonstration, the Americans were embroiled with 
their British neighbours because their British neigh- 
bours declined to admit them to a stronghold pre- 
pared for their own nationals in times of emer- 
gency, and this feeling of ill-will engendered in 
times of stress has not wholly died out. 

When Tampico business men sent representatives 
to Washington to lay their grievances before Presi- 
dent Wilson, they were unable to see him. Re- 
ferred to the secretary of the navy, they obtained 
no satisfaction from Mr. Daniels. 

"Tampico," said Mr. Daniels, turning to the map. 
"Ah yes, here we are," and began running his 
finger along the coast midway between Vera Cruz 
and Progresso. 

"No, Mr. Daniels, to the north of Vera Cruz," 
one of the committee said. 

"To be sure," replied Mr. Daniels, turning his 
attention to a district some hundreds of miles 
further north. "Here we are, right on the coast." 

"No, Mr. Daniels," objected another Tampico 
man, "not on the coast, but seven miles up the 
river." 

No doubt Mr. Daniels was jesting, for one does 
not run a country daily for a score of years without 
acquiring a smattering of geography, but his pre- 
tended ignorance of the location of Tampico hurt, 
for these men had assisted in putting it on the map, 
and had seen it grow from a sleepy little Indian 
[222] 



THE OIL MEN'S VERSION 



town of some three thousand inhabitants to its 
present proportions which are those of a prosperous 
semi- American city with tall buildings and a popu- 
lation of sixty thousand, and ambitions of a metro- 
politan character. 

Against the Mexican Government the grievances 
are equally numerous and no less bitter. 

American citizens have been denied the right to 
carry arms for their own protection. It being 
pointed out to some of them that on making applica- 
tion to the proper authorities a permit would be 
issued to them, both arms and ammunition were 
brought in, and the applications made and granted. 
Several days later both arms and ammunitions were 
seized on the ground of military necessity. 

Taxes assessed in the municipality of Tampico 
amount to some $1,500,000 per annum, a revenue 
wrongly said to be larger than that of Kansas City, 
but Americans have no voice in the administration 
of the revenues, and plans for civic improvements 
are promptly sidetracked if presented. 

There are leaks between the Carranza officials in 
Tampico and the outlaws, as shown by otherwise 
uncanny knowledge of the routes of pay rolls, the 
amount of money carried, and the strength of the 
guard. No satisfaction has ever been had upon 
complaints arising from such cases. 

Until recently it has been impossible to obtain 
protection from the Federal Government for the 
[223] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

oil camps, so that the heavy payments of tribute to 
Pelaez have been a matter of necessity. 

Finally, it is charged, but without proof, that 
many of the hold-ups which frequently take place 
between Tampico, which is controlled by the offi- 
cials of Mr. Carranza, and the oil zone, which is 
guarded by "General" Pelaez, are the work of 
Carrancistas. 

The oil men say that on the one hand they have 
contributed liberally of men and money toward 
winning the war for America, besides furnishing an 
essential war material. They insist that they are 
reputable American business men, entitled to their 
rights as citizens, even though resident in a foreign 
country, and that they have been insulted so uni- 
formly when attempting to confer with American 
officials that they will not renew their efforts at an 
understanding with Washington until a Republican 
Administration takes office. On the other hand they 
are tired of smooth words and vague promises from 
Mexico City, and only definite actions will convince 
them of the reality of Mr. Carranza's good inten- 
tions toward them. 

It was suggested to them, but in vain, that Wash- 
ington had recognized Mr. Carranza's Government 
as the one and only legal government in Mexico, 
and that the United States would be hampered in its 
efforts to obtain a financial settlement by persistence 
[224] 



THE OIL MEN'S VERSION 



on the part of the oil men in aiding a rebel with 
money and munitions. 

It was suggested to them, but in vain, that Mr. 
Carranza's Government might be disposed to do 
more for them if their status was cleared from this 
political taint. 

They are standpatters, these oil men, and are 
determined to hold their own, no matter at what 
cost. Perhaps the owners of oil securities in the 
United States may not agree with the position these 
gentlemen have taken, but they are at present in 
control of the Tampico oil industry, and will con- 
tinue to run things to suit themselves — unless some- 
thing happens. 

No objection to the accuracy of this presentation 
of the oil men's version has been made by them, 
six months after its publication in the New York 
Tribune. Their statement regarding financial loss, 
however, I have found to be untrue, and I there- 
fore doubt many of their other statements. 



[225] 



CHAPTER NINETEEN: MEXICO'S 
FUTURE BRIGHT 

The future of Mexico, and indeed of every 
country, can be nothing but the outgrowth of the 
present. At present, says the Mexican secretary of 
the treasury, "Mexico is convalescent." If Mexico 
is on the way to recovery, which is my own opinion. 
President Carranza was not far wrong in express- 
ing the hope that he would be able to leave a com- 
pletely pacified country to his successor in office in 
December, 1920. In this event I forecast a bright 
future for our neighbour. Indeed, I venture to 
suggest the possibility that in ten years from now 
the people of Mexico may find themselves in the de- 
lectable position as regards taxation in which sub- 
jects of the Prince of Monaco are now unique — tax 
free. 

It is not altogether beyond possibility that the 
nationalization of petroleum may make Mexico the 
richest nation on earth. Let us for the moment 
waive all thought of the Tampico and Tuxpan oil 
fields, which are almost wholly controlled by 
British and American capital, but exported in the 
year 1918, 58,560,553 barrels of petroleum — to- 
gether with the political and financial questions in- 
[226] 



MEXICO'S FUTURE BRIGHT 



volved. Waiving this, it is beyond the range of 
controversy that Article 27 of the new constitution 
of 1917 stands good in international law, once its 
retroactive features, which are contradicted by an- 
other section of the same fundamental law, are 
eliminated. That means that all future oil 
discoveries will be the property of the Mexican 
nation, and can be developed on a royalty system by 
which the operators will be allowed sufficient profits 
to encourage the investment of brains and money, 
but without giving the lion's share to foreigners — 
a lion's share which enabled Lord Cowdray's com- 
pany to pay a 25 per cent, dividend last year, and 
the Royal Dutch Shell to pay dividends for the 
last two years of 38 and 48 per cent. 

Ever since I got into the heart of Mexico I have 
had a strong conviction that the oil regions of the re- 
public still undeveloped but known to the higher 
officials of the government, and perhaps to certain 
Americans also, vastly exceed the properties 
now exploited, affording, in view of the constantly 
increasing demand for mineral oil, the certainty 
of enormous wealth. I knew that Mexican, French, 
British, and American oil men had been exploring 
every part of the United States of Mexico for 
several years. I knew that these investigations had 
covered the Yucatan peninsula. Lower California, 
the States of the Central plateau, and those of the 
Pacific coast. The Mexican officials had been per- 
[227] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

fectly frank with me in discussing financial affairs, 
giving me the very latest figures regarding the na- 
tional debt, the foreign loans, the revenues, and the 
railways. No information was forthcoming on 
petroleum. I never met a more courteous or com- 
panionable lot of people than these same Mexican 
officials, and I had found them ready at all times 
to furnish information if sought — except when 
it came to petroleum. My "hunch" is that not 
more than a tenth of Mexico's known petroleum re- 
sources are being operated as I write. I believe 
that if Mexico enjoys for ten years to come as peace- 
ful a rule as that which now exists, her exports will 
be ten times as great as in 1918, and that nine- 
tenths of the increase will be of oil owned by the 
nation. Bear in mind that the population of 
Mexico is now under 15,000,000, and then take 
your paper and pencil and figure to yourself the ex- 
traordinary magnitude of the per capita wealth 
which will flow into Mexico from this source alone. 
Cuba's profits in sugar will seem as a drop in the 
bucket. 

Even if my "hunch" is wrong, however, peace- 
ful development for ten years certainly means a 
bright future for Mexico. Mexico is naturally, as 
the Englishman says of his modern flat, "self-con- 
tained." Her tropical coasts produce an abun- 
dance of bananas, the cheapest food in the world; 
[228] 



MEXICO'S FUTURE BRIGHT 



of cocoanuts, which yield the cheapest and most 
wholesome vegetable oil for food, as well as sugar, 
and the tropical fruits, which are valuable for their 
delicacy and nutritive qualities. The temperate 
zone includes vast areas suitable to the cultivation of 
cereals in which, to take a single instance, the yield 
of corn is immense, and there are two crops a year. 
The pasturage for cattle and sheep surpasses that 
of any other country in America. The mines aban- 
doned years ago by Spanish owners are yielding 
handsome returns under modern methods, and a 
single mine in the Valley of Mexico, reported in 
the latest book on that country as having been shut 
down since the retirement of President Diaz, is 
actually shipping 7,000,000 pesos a month in 
bullion. 

Mexico needs above all things peace, schools, and 
irrigation. No one knows it better than the Mexi- 
cans themselves. Mexico, which had a population 
of 30,000,000 when Cortez landed, and can support 
three times that population today, is, notwithstand- 
ing the long domination by Spain, the most Ameri- 
can of all American countries, for the aborigines 
constitute 85 per cent, of the population, and this 
Indian element, which has dwindled under the op- 
pression of centuries, has produced its fair share 
of the men who have distinguished themselves in the 
public life of their country. There are possibili- 
[229] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

ties in the peon which neither Diaz nor any of his 
predecessors was willing to develop. What they 
wanted was peon labour. 

What the Mexicans themselves want, and what I 
hope they may have, is a nation in which the stand- 
ard of illiteracy shall be reduced from the present 
80 per cent, to a point at which the only adults who 
cannot at least read and write will be the con- 
genitally defective. That condition cannot be 
brought about in less than a generation, but I am 
happy to say that I saw the beginning of tlie system 
of universal education, the necessity for which is 
now admitted by all parties and all classes of Mexi- 
can society. 

But if the germ of the future is in the present, 
it is worth while to make it clear that conditions in 
Mexico at this time are by no means as bad as they 
have been painted. One of the most astonishing 
bits of unintentional misinformation was furnished 
by a map of Mexico in a New York daily of June 
22, which purported to prove that rebel forces rule 
one-half of Mexico. This map showed by various 
shadings the territory controlled by the rebel 
leaders. Were it correct, it would have been 
physically impossible for me and my good wife 
either to have entered Mexico last February, or to 
have left that country two months later, although 
our passports, with all due vises, would suffice to 
convince any court of justice that we are right in 
[230] 



MEXICO'S FUTURE BRIGHT 



believing that we were in Mexico. This map shows 
that between Vera Cruz and Mexico City is a large 
tract of territory controlled by Felix Diaz. Yet 
we passed through, accompained by a party of 
Mexicans who would have furnished a big haul to 
any bandit. 

The map shows that on June 22 all of the State 
of Puebla and part of Guerrero were ruled by 
Emiliano Zapata, despite the fact that we had 
visited the City of Puebla, had dined with the 
governor in his palace, and returned to Mexico City 
without seeing any trace of disorder, and the ad- 
ditional fact that Zapata and the handful of fol- 
lowers remaining to him were killed by soldiers 
last April. The map shows that Felix Diaz and 
"General" Pelaez together rule practically all of the 
State of Tamaulipas and the northern part of Vera 
Cruz. Therefore we could not possibly have 
travelled from San Luis Potosi to Tampico to get 
a steamer for New York, and instead of finding the 
oil men in Tampico paying their taxes to the Car- 
ranza Government, we should have had to interview 
Diaz or Pelaez. Equally absurd, of course, was 
the assignment of all of Chihuahua, and parts of 
Durango, Sonora and Coahuila to Villa. This ter- 
ritory included the cities of Jaurez, Chihuahua, Par- 
ral, San Pedro, and Torreon, all of which, unless 
the American authorities in Mexico are mightily 
deceived, are loyal to the Carranza Government. 
[231] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

' i^-^-^— ^— — « 

Ambassador Fletcher has testified that Villa con- 
trols merely the land on which he is camping for the 
time being. Pelaez, who was retreating before the 
Carranza soldiers in Tamaulipas when I left 
Mexico, was estimated to have in all less than 200 
men. These figures were given me by a Belgian 
oil inspector who had spent eighteen months in the 
oil jungle, and were not disputed by the oil men 
residing in Tampico. It is doubtful if Diaz has 
fifty followers, and it is certain that he was unable 
to prevent the destruction of the landing party led 
to his support last winter by General Blanquet, 
whose death occurred shortly after that of Zapata. 
Conditions in Mexico are bad enough without any 
misrepresentation. The loss in property during 
ten years of civil strife has run into the hundreds of 
millions. A minor official who had taken part in 
some of the severest fights of the whole period told 
me that he believed the total sacrifice of human 
life had been not less than 1,000,000. Zapata left 
the rich State of Morelos, the centre of the Mexican 
sugar industry, in ruins, so that not a mill was 
standing, and for a time it was necessary for Mexico 
to import sugar. Villa has made it impossible to 
work some of the richest mines in northern Mexico 
even now. Pelaez still keeps from their homes 
scores of Americans who settled in the interior of 
Tamaulipas, attracted by the wonderfully fertile 
soil and the climate. It is doubtful if the great 
[232] 



MEXICO'S FUTURE BRIGHT 



Mexican country estates, taking them by and large, 
would show today more than half the wealth in 
horses, cattle, sheep, or farm implements, that they 
possessed ten years ago. The railways of Mexico 
are badly in need of all kinds of rolling stock and 
equipment, and should be augmented by new lines 
to tap undeveloped mineral and agricultural lands. 
The international claims for damages from the 
United States of Mexico because of the destruction 
of foreign-owned property during the revolution 
now number 9,073, and may be expected to total 
$400,000,000. It is true, of course, that claims 
of a similar nature have been settled on a basis of 
1 per cent. There is still insufficient revenue to pay 
all interest and principal of government bonds. 
These are the worst features of the situation as it ap- 
pears today. 

To offset them the first asset is the will to live in 
peace and happiness, which, I believe, now ani- 
mates ninety-nine out of every hundred Mexicans; 
the fact that the revenues are now $180,000,000 
per annum, more than at any period of the nation's 
history; that the greatest drain is the army, which 
is much smaller now than in years, and will be still 
further reduced as the bandits are subdued. Add 
to these facts increased profits from the railways, 
a better system of general taxation, a present pros- 
perity everywhere evident in the Central States of 
Mexico, and an abundant supply of gold and 
[233] 



THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 

silver money which is above par in exchange, and 
there are ample reasons for optimism as to Mexico. 
Only a continuation of war can complete the ruin of 
this rich country, and the Mexican people know it 
as well as we do. 

OP. VI, AEVIA 



[234] 



APPENDIX I 

PRESIDENT CARRANZA'S MESSAGE 

Delivered to the National Congress on September 1, 1919; 
Reported by La Revista Mexicana. 

On Monday afternoon, September 1, 19l9, the regular 
session of the Honourable Congress of the Union met at 
4.30 o'clock, upon which occasion President Carranza ad- 
dressed that body, and the reports of the various Depart- 
ments were read. 

Preceding the perusal of the reports mentioned, the 
President spoke as follows: 

Citizen Deputies: 

Citizen Senators: 

The circumstances recorded in the progress of the 
nation during the past year invest the communication 
which, in accordance with the Supreme Code, the Exec- 
utive renders before you today, with a special interest, 
translated into the most favourable facts of the progress 
of the Republic in the whole of its affairs. The de- 
velopment of the country is so remarkable in this direc- 
tion and so free in its vigour, that the same difficulties 
presented in the different classes concur to demonstrate 
the strength with which Mexican life is developing. 

A comparison of the actual condition of things with 

that of the first days of May, 1917, when the precon- 

stitutional period had just expired, or an analysis of the 

evolutionary process of the different activities of the 

[235] 



APPENDIX I 



official and private machinery of the present momsnt as 
compared with the former period, demonstrates positively 
that there has been non-interrupted progress. The same 
state of affairs in which the Republic stands now, in the 
conclusion of the most serious of our revolutions, has 
not succeeded in obstructing the social, political and 
juridical development, equivalent to the pacific task of 
several years. The problems of reorganization and the 
phenomenon of accommodation need the results of ad- 
ministrative effort in the brief period mentioned. 

Countless have been the hindrances which the Exec- 
utive, in conjunction with the other Powers, has had to 
overcome, but the general results without doubt are 
satisfactory to the aspirations of the Union. 

Department of Foreign Affairs 

The Republic still maintains very good relations with 
all countries and has interrupted tliem only with Great 
Britain for the reasons expressed by the Executive to 
the Honourable Congress in the last report. 

In order to cultivate and promote these diplomatic 
relations, the Government accredited several officials to 
represent Mexico abroad, Mr. Alberto J. Pani pre- 
sented his credentials in France as Extraordinary Envoy 
and Plenipotentiary Minister of Mexico last March, and 
General Eduardo Hay was accredited last May before the 
Italian Government with the same capacity; Mr. Amado 
Nervo was sent as Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipo- 
tentiary Minister before the Governments of Argentine 
and Uruguay, where he presented his credentials in 
April and May this year, respectively; Colonel Fernando 
Cuen went to Chile imder the same capacity and pre- 
[236] 



APPENDIX I 



sented his credentials there last April; General Aaron 
Saenz was appointed to go to Brazil as Plenipotentiary- 
Envoy also, and presented his credentials last March; 
Mr. Alfonso Siller was accredited as Minister from 
Mexico to Peru, and assumed his post last April, while 
Mr. Jose Almaraz was appointed Minister to Nicaragua 
and Costa Rica; finally, last May General Heriberto 
Jara was received by the Cuban Government as Extraor- 
dinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister from Mexico. 
We have also diplomatic missions in the United States 
of America, France, Italy, Spain, Colombia, Equador, 
Venezuela, Salvador, Honduras, Japan, China, Belgium, 
Norway, Sweden and Denmark. 

The friendly governments for their part have also their 
respective missions in this capital, as for instance, the 
United States of America, Germany, Argentine, Austria, 
Belgium, Cuba, Chile, China, Spain, France, Guatemala, 
Honduras, Italy, Japan, Nicaragua, Norway, Sweden and 
Uruguay. On account of the heads of some of the 
foreign legations having been vacant, their Excellencies 
Alberto Yoacham Varas and Ezequiel Garcia Enseiiat 
were accredited as Extraordinary Envoys and Plenipo- 
tentiary Ministers from Chile and Cuba respectively, and 
Honourable Cong Tsieng-Hwong as Charge d' Affaires ad 
interim from China since last November. 

Our Relations With the United States 

On the 22d of December, 1918, the United States 
Embassy addressed the Foreign Office two notes regarding 
the oil question. The first one was a reply to Mexico's 
note basing our right to legislate on oil matters as has 
been done. 

[237] 



APPENDIX I 



Said answer expresses that the United States Govern- 
ment believes that Mexico is moved by the best intentions 
to settle the oil controversy and that this shall redound 
to the benefit of the good relations existing between both 
countries. The United States Government adds that 
Mexico's good disposition is expected to purport a re- 
consideration of all decrees and laws issued in regard 
to oil, and avails the opportunity to state that the United 
States have never pledged in any way through declara- 
tions of any of their rulers, particularly of their actual 
President, not to resort to diplomatic intervention in be- 
half of their citizens abroad whenever such intervention 
be justified. The same note rejects the argument pre- 
sented by Mexico to the effect that if foreigners are given 
the right to make diplomatic claims in similar cases they 
would often be placed under conditions more favourable 
than those enjoyed by the natives; it is argued therein 
that the citizens of a country have, besides the ordinary 
judicial resources, the last one of changing by means of 
their vote the institutions or remove the authorities 
which may be detrimental to their rights; and that this 
prerogative is not enjoyed by foreigners, and, therefore, 
to forbid them to resort to the protection of their govern- 
ments in case of wrong, would be to place them in a 
state of disadvantageous inequality regarding natives. 

This note ends by saying that if the subsequent acts of 
the Mexican Government and its administrative or judi- 
cial authorities do not meet the expectations of the 
United States Government, it reserves the consideration 
of paying more attention to its citizens concerning this 
important matter; that the President has traced a well 
defined line between the policy of armed intervention and 
[238] 



APPENDIX I 



the policy of diplomatic intervention; on several oc- 
casions he has indeed expressed that he would not back 
up armed intervention in another country for the sake of 
selfish interests, and the complete exposition of the 
subject as made by the Mexican Secretary of Foreign 
Affairs evidently describes such case; but the President 
has never said that he would resign the right of diplo- 
matically intervening in behalf of his fellow-citizens, 
which undoubtedly is a friendly method to protect legiti- 
mate national interests in order to prevent injustices. 
On the contrary — the note goes on — nowhere, as in the 
following paragraph quoted from one of his speeches 
made Jan. 29, 1916, has the President stated more clearly 
his favour to diplomatic intervention: 

"Not only have the United States the right to protect 
life within their own boundaries, but they also have the 
right to demand equal and just treatment for their 
citizens wherever they may go. 

"The United States Government asks for nothing else 
but 'an equal and fair treatment' for its citizens, and 
consequently entertains the sincere hope that the Mexican 
Courts called to decide on the legal questions implied in 
the oil regulations, shall protect in the lawsuits that 
have been brought or which may later on be started, the 
lawfully acquired rights of the United States citizens. 
Thus might the controversy be satisfactorily settled; 
however, if this hope should be disappointed, the United 
States Government must reserve to itself the right to 
consider the questions of interest more in favour of its 
citizens affected by this grave and important matter." 

The second note of the same date expresses that in 
case that the Congress should approve the laws and de- 
[239] 



APPENDIX I 



crees on oil, the United States Government wishes to re- 
new the protests previously made. 

The Department of Foreign Affairs answered acknowl- 
edging receipt. 

The American Embassy protested against the circular 
orders given by the Financial Department relating to the 
collection of royalties from the oil companies. The 
Department of Foreign Affairs made the corresponding 
objections. 

The United States citizens interested in oil properties 
in Mexico for their part initiated and maintain with a 
perfect organization, extraordinary strength and remark- 
able persistence a press campaign in the United States 
devised to impress the public mind of the coimtry and 
the general mass as well as the members of both Houses 
by all possible means of the necessity to compel their 
Government to intervene in Mexico in order that our laws 
be drafted in perfect accordance with their personal in- 
terests, a finality which, of course, they do not frankly 
invoke, for they demand intervention on account of an 
alleged lack of guaranties prevailing in our country, an 
argument which easily impresses the public mind. 

Unfortunately we receive frequent suggestions, more 
or less vehement, from the United States Government 
whenever we wish to adopt any changes which might 
purport some damage for the interests of the citizens of 
that country, such suggestions tending to restrain our 
liberty of legislation and to impair our right to develop 
ourselves according to our own judgment. 

The most important case of this nature was that of 
the Richardson Construction Company, when diplomatic 
[240] 



APPENDIX I 



endeavours were made to have us revoke the decision to 
raise the taxes on a great land-holding, despite the fact 
that one of the causes of the revolution of 1910 was the 
lack of proportion between the value of real estate and 
the taxes paid thereon, and notwithstanding that one of 
the fundamental principles of the Constitutionalist 
Revolution was that of progressive taxation of landed 
estates, so as to compel the landholders to divide their 
large properties. 

Still other cases of representations of that sort are 
recorded, as for instance in the following cases: On 
account of the raising of taxes or creating restrictions to 
the exportation of hides and cattle; on account of taxes 
imposed on production of metals and on mining claims; 
on account of the value of henequen having gone up, and 
recently, because the export duties on cotton produced 
in Lower California were increased. 

In all these occasions the argument of the United 
States Department of State, whenever official notes have 
been exchanged, or that of the press when the action 
assumed a different character, has been that such taxes 
or duties are "confiscatory," this word having received 
such an amplitude that just by invoking it any limitation 
to our right to legislate seems justified. 

The Mexican Government hopes that the Government 
of the Northern Republic shall respect the sovereignty 
and independence of Mexico, for to violate them under 
the excuse of lack of guaranties for its citizens or our 
legislation being detrimental to their interests would be 
an unpardonable transgression of the principles of In- 
ternational Law and morality, and would demonstratQ 
[241] 



APPENDIX I 



that the greatest misfortune that may ever fall on a 
people is to be weak, and not able to protect itself by 
force against stronger nations. 

On account of our geographical situation in regard to 
the United States of America and the close commercial 
ties binding us, several incidents of different kinds have 
arisen in the course of our international relations. 

Last year a group of United States soldiers came 
across the boundary line into our territory to a town 
called El Mulato and a shooting ensued where an Ameri- 
can citizen was killed and a Mexican fiscal guard was 
wounded. Our Embassy made the due representation 
and the United States Government answered that its 
soldiers had been indeed responsible for the incident, and 
that having been tried by a courtmartial two of them had 
been sentenced to one year imprisonment, two others to 
three years and one to five years. 

Last year also a group of United States soldiers shot 
at a handful of Mexican farmers who were engaged in 
their work in our territory within the jurisdiction of 
Villa Acufia, Coah., and the Mexican citizen Angel Ran- 
gel was killed. Our Embassy presented the correspond- 
ing claim and the State Department informed that three 
United States soldiers had fired at the Mexicans, and 
they would be tried by a courtmartial. We have no 
information thus far regarding the sentence given to the 
culprits. 

Last April our Embassy at Washington received a 
petition signed by many Mexican citizens located in Bar- 
tlesville, Oklahoma, complaining of the unjust persecu- 
tion they are being made victims of in that region, be- 
[242] 



APPENDIX I 



cause David Cantu was beaten on the 16th of the same 
month by five or six American citizens. On the 18th 
several Mexicans who were together heard a public 
official of the locality express the opinion that Cantu 
should be whipped and hanged to a post, and on the 
22d three United States citizens came indeed to the house 
where Cantu was working and hanged him and mis- 
treated him without any justified reason. In that very 
place a Mexican Jose N. who worked in one of the cafes 
of the town was shot at by a dentist. Our Embassy in 
these as in all similar cases made representations and we 
know not yet whether the culprits were arrested and 
prosecuted. 

Last April several soldiers of the United States Army 
invaded our territory through Vado de Piedra, jurisdic- 
tion of Ojinaga, Chihuahua, in pursuit of bandits, and 
they entered some twelve kilometers into Mexico. Once 
again through the same place they came into our territory 
and attacked the marauders, killing five of them. They 
accidentally wounded a yoimg lady and a man. The 
corresponding representations were made through our 
Embassy to the Government at Washington, but we do not 
know yet if any action was taken to punish the soldiers 
responsible for the deed. 

Last May the Mexican citizen Jesus Aguirre, who 
worked at a ship-yard in Rockport, Tex., was unjustly 
beaten and wounded by three American citizens, the local 
authorities paying no attention to the case. Our Consul 
in Corpus Christi informed that there existed a marked 
hostility toward our fellow-citizens in Rockport, for they 
are not admitted in hotels, boarding houses, limch- 
[243] 



APPENDIX I 



counters, barber shops and other public places, while 
their children are confined in a special school under 
very deficient conditions. 

In June this year the Board of Education of the State 
of California excluded the Mexican children from the 
official schools of Santa Paula, El Centro and other Cali- 
fornia towns, and sent them to the schools for coloured 
people. Our Embassy made the proper representation 
and the United States Government gave explanation of 
the case. 

On the 15th of last June Villa and his followers at- 
tacked Juarez City, garrisoned by General Francisco 
Gonzalez, and having been defeated in three successive 
attempts to capture the town. Villa tried to provoke an 
international conflict by firing at the American side, 
where a few persons were wounded. On this account 
the troops of that country were sent across the boundary 
line into Mexico to disperse the "Villistas" and the next 
day re-crossed the line into the United States. General 
Gonzalez demanded the immediate withdrawal of the 
foreign forces, acting with all firmness and prudence. 

Our Government protested against the invasion and 
made representations before the officials at Washington, 
and our Embassy was told in answer to our complaint 
that the sending of troops was intended merely as a 
protective measure and had for its only purpose to 
repel the aggression of the Villa followers. 

Last July the Mexican military paymaster M. L. 
Palma was assaulted by three masked individuals in 
Marfa, Texas, and deprived of the money he carried 
with him to pay our troops at Ojinaga, Chihuahua. The 
chairman of the Grand Jury at Presidio, Texas, informed 
[244] 



APPENDIX I 



our Consul that after a close investigation the conclusion 
had been arrived at that even though the robbery had 
indeed taken place it was not possible yet to establish any 
responsibility, and that the paymaster, even being in- 
nocent, was partly to blame for having left Marfa so 
early in the morning. No arrest has been made thus far 
on that account. 

In the same month of July the Mexican citizen 
Anacleto Salazar was killed by a drunken policeman in 
Eureka, Utah. The officer was set free, as though having 
acted in self-defence. 

Again in July the Mexican citizen Francisco Rosales 
was beaten and robbed during the race riots that occurred 
in Washington. Our Embassy has made the due repre- 
sentations but the culprits have not been arrested. 

At the same time a patrol of United States soldiers 
fired at several Mexicans in Los Adobes, Texas, taking 
them for deserters, and the Mexican citizen Julio Car- 
rasco was killed. Our Embassy presented the cor- 
responding claim and the United States Congress was 
recommended to pass a resolution for the payment of 
an indemnity to Carrasco's relatives. 

Last August Jose Blanco and Elizondo Gonzalez, 
Mexican citizens, were attacked by a mob in the city of 
Chicago, and Blanco wounded in self-defence his as- 
saulters, armed with a knife. On this account he was 
arrested. Gonzalez was taken to a hospital, badly 
wounded. The assaulters have not been arrested. Our 
Embassy made the corresponding representations to the 
Washington authorities. 

In the same month three United States soldiers came 
across the boundary line down south as far as San Juan, 
[245] 



APPENDIX I 



Chihuahua. Our troops tried to capture the invaders, 
but they fired at our men and fled across the border, 
having killed a Mexican soldier. The Mexican Embassy 
presented the due claim, but thus far no news has been 
received of any action taken in that regard. 

Some Mexicans have at times tried to go across the 
Rio Grande without complying with the laws and rules 
established to that effect, and unhappy accidents have 
occurred on that account, for the United States guards 
fire upon these people, wounding or killing them. Such 
was the case with Feliciano Hernandez and Reyes 
Payanes, killed that way in the jurisdiction of San 
Antonio, Chihuahua. Our Government has made the 
corresponding representations. 

On several occasions United States aviators have come 
across the border and operated with their airplanes over 
our territory, and in all such cases our Embassy, by 
instructions of the Department of Foreign Affairs, has 
presented the necessary representations and protests, de- 
spite which the raids have been repeated. 

Last August an airplane of the United States Army 
flew over into Mexican territory and landed near Falomir 
Station, on the line from Chihuahua to Presidio, some 
112 kilometers from the border. Before any news was 
heard of the aviators' whereabouts, the United States 
authorities requested permission to have another of their 
aviators come over in search of the stray officers, which 
was granted on the 11th, and the Americans never made 
use of such permission. A band of twenty Villa fol- 
lowers captured the aviators and approached the border 
with them demanding a ransom. On this accoxmt 
United States forces invaded the national territory in 
[246] 



APPENDIX I 



pursuit of the kidnappers of their countrymen. The 
Mexican Government demanded of the Washington 
authorities the immediate withdrawal of the invading 
troops and protested against the invasion, which con- 
stitutes a serious and unwarranted violation of our 
rights that wounded very deeply the patriotic feelings of 
the Mexicans. 

Unfortunately in the history of our relations with 
the United States of America this is not the only case of 
similar outrages. Whenever the authorities of that 
country have deemed necessary or convenient to invade 
our territory, they have done so, thus violating the rights 
of a friendly nation. It is not true that only at present, 
as a result of the abnormal circumstances of the Re- 
public after the civil war, that Government has been 
adopting measures of that sort. Nor is it true, as some 
people dare affirm, that the attitude of the Mexican Gov- 
ernment during the world war should be the cause of 
these frictions and of the complete disregard of our 
rights on the part of the United States; it shall suffice 
to recollect a few cases to convince ourselves that also 
in other stages of our history have occurred happenings 
like these we now deplore. 

Around the year 1869, the Kickapoo Indians were 
causing serious damages to Mexico as well as to the 
United States. The Washington foreign office asked 
permission of the Mexican Government to send troops 
across the border in pursuit of the Indians. Mexico re- 
fused it, but gave orders to the Governors of the 
Northern States to co-operate with the United States 
forces. However, on the 21st of May, 1873, Colonel 
MacKenzie came across the Rio Grande, above Piedras 
[247] 



APPENDIX I 



Negras, with five hundred cavalrymen of the United 
States Army, provoking the corresponding protests of 
the Mexican Government. 

On May 28th, 1874, an armed force of the United 
States Army invaded our territory under the excuse of 
pursuing cattle thieves. 

In October, 1874, the Governor of Texas, Mr. Coke, 
ordered the State Guard to pursue into Mexico a band of 
savage Indians. 

In May, 1875, a group of armed men under the com- 
mand of two Sheriffs of Laredo entered the Mexican 
town of Nuevo Laredo, pretending to capture some 
marauders who had fled into Mexico across the border. 

On November 19th, 1875, United States forces came 
across the frontier in pursuit of cattle thieves. Our 
Government requested through its Minister at Washington 
that measures be adopted to prevent such transgressions 
and that further invasions of our territory be avoided. 

In May, 1877, a certain number of United States 
soldiers, under Colonel Shafter, crossed the Rio Grande 
and came to Piedras Negras, intending to take from the 
public jail two individuals who were arrested there. 

On May 27, 1877, the Governor of Arizona at the 
head of military forces entered Sonora in pursuit of 
Apache Indians. 

In December, 1877, Captain Young and Lieutenant 
Bullis entered Mexican territory with a squad of cavalry- 
men for the purpose of destroying the house of some 
moonshiners. 

In December, 1877, 50 men from Apache Pass Fort 
crossed the boundary line into a point called Cajon de 
Las Alijas, Sonora. 

[248] 



APPENDIX I 



In January, 1878, when Colonel Shafter was called to 
appear before the United States Military Committee to 
inform on border matters and expeditions across the 
boundary after cattle thieves, he stated that in May, 
1876, he had come into Mexico in pursuit of Lipan In- 
dians, the result of his expedition being the capture of 
19 of them and the destruction of their settlement. 

On June 22d of the same year again United States 
forces entered Mexico under Colonels MacKenzie and 
Shafter, forty miles above Eagle Pass, under the excuse 
to pursue marauders. The forces included twenty com- 
panies of cavalry and various divisions of artillery, 
provisions for fifteen days, a heavy train and several 
experts. These American troops committed many de- 
predations in the ranch known as "El Remolino." 

On the 30th of June that same year our territory was 
once more invaded by United States troops in the juris- 
diction of Capitan Leal (Las Vacas) ; the foreign troops 
were commanded by Captain Kelly and remained in our 
territory from the 24th to the 27th of July. They 
captured and took with them the Justice of Rio Grande. 

In July of that same year Colonel MacKenzie again 
entered Mexican territory through a point close to 
Piedras Negras, according to advices from the Mayors 
of Sabinas, Zaragoza and Jimenez. This invasion was 
effected despite the continuous diplomatic opposition 
made by the Mexican Government. 

In August of that very year United States troops from 
Forts Duncan and Clark came across the boimdary line 
imder Colonel Yoimg, and entered the State of Coahuila 
in pursuit of a bandit named Arriola. The invading 
troops included two regiments of cavalry. 
[249] 



APPENDIX I 



At the beginning of April, 1879, a band of United 
States troops from Fort Bayard entered Mexican ter- 
ritory as far south as Ascension and intending to inarch 
on to Janos, but the band retreated at last, giving no 
excuse for the invasion but that they wanted to know 
those towns of the State for Chihuahua. There were 25 
men in the band. 

Still in the same year, on September 22d, the State of 
Chihuahua was again invaded. Six himdred men came 
in and pursued some Indians. Our Government notified 
the Washington authorities through our Minister there, 
that if the United States forces did not leave the country 
at once our troops would be ordered to fight them. 

From the 5th to the 6th of October that very year 
United States forces commanded by Lieutenant Taylor 
pursued a band of Indians across the border. 

In 1880 our Government made representations on 
account of the invasion made of Chihuahua through the 
towns of Lucero and Cantaros. The invading forces re- 
turned to their territory, claiming to have come across 
into Mexico because they lacked water and were looking 
for it. 

In February, 1881, Lieutenant Morey entered Mexican 
territory with a platoon of soldiers as far south as the 
Candelaria range of mountains, in pursuit of some 
Indians. 

On the same date a group of United States soldiers 
came across the border searching for a soldier who de- 
serted in Tucson. 

In May of the same year Lieutenant Bullis entered 
Mexico with his soldiers just above Las Vacas, pursuing 
some rebellious Lipan Indians. 
[250] 



APPENDIX I 



In November of that very year 30 United States 
soldiers under Lieutenant Gardey pursued Indians into 
Sonora. 

In January, 1882, 28 men of the 4th Regiment 
U. S. Cavalry under Lieutenant MacDonald came 
across the frontier and were captured by the com- 
mander of the garrison at Janos for violating our 
territory. 

In July of the same year a military force entered 
Mexico near Janos, under the command of Colonel 
William Ross. General Bernardo Reyes went to that 
point with his troops and disarmed all the foreign 
soldiers. Forty eight rifles and five Springfield guns 
were taken from them, while such soldiers were com- 
pelled to return to their territory. 

On the 14th of last August several United States 
soldiers were firing at the peaceful inhabitants of a 
settlement called "Las Pompas," jurisdiction of Zara- 
goza, State of Chihuahua, about five o'clock in the 
afternoon. The people of that community had to seek 
refuge outside their settlement. 

On the 19th of the same month three American soldiers 
entered Mexico at a border town called Barrancos de 
Guadalupe, jurisdiction of Ojinaga, Chihuahua, and fired 
without any reason at some Mexican peons who were 
farming in the field, wounding Juan Rey. 

On the 23d of the same month came into our territory 
some United States forces through the town of Gua- 
dalupe, Chihuahua, in pursuit of some bandits, and cut 
off our telegraphic lines. 

On the same date other troops entered the town of San 
Ignacio, in the State of Chihuahua, and took by sheer 

[251] . 



APPENDIX I 



force with them to American territory several peaceful 
citizens of the place. 

In all these cases the Mexican Government has made 
emphatic representations, as well as in any other in- 
stances in which our territory was violated or our 
sovereignty disregarded. 

A great part of the Mexicans who on account of the 
world war were recruited in the United States, have 
already been dismissed although no news is available 
regarding some of them. Of all those sent to the front, 
it is positively known that five perished in combats or 
in shipwrecks, two in service accidents and one through 
sickness. 

Our Embassy made the corresponding representations 
in all these cases. 

Since the day when the United States recognized our 
Government, the Washington authorities had refused to 
attend the request of extradition Mexico made according 
to the Treaty. In May this year the State Department 
informed our Embassy at Washington that it was now 
ready to transact any extradition demands that the Mexi- 
can Government would present, and this oJBFer has been 
kept. 

The United States Government for its part has also 
demanded several extradition cases. 

The American Embassy addressed our Foreign Office 
several notes asking for the capture and punishment 
of people guilty for crimes committed against United 
States citizens in our territory, and has constantly re- 
quested that fuller guaranties be extended them. Some 
concrete cases may be mentioned. At the end of Novem- 
ber last year the United States Embassy communicated 
[252] 



APPENDIX I 



that the American manager of the Espada mines in the 
State of Jalisco, had been kidnapped. The bandits were 
pursued by our troops and the American regained his 
liberty in the first days of January. 

In February the same Embassy advised that Messrs. 
William J. Devitt, Roy A, Mathewson and William H. 
Holmes had been kidnapped at Santa Eulalia by a band 
of Villa followers. The local authorities reported that 
on the same day of their capture those Americans were 
set free. 

In March the Embassy informed on the kidnapping of 
Oscar Wallace at the ranch of Encinas, State of Coahuila. 
Despite the activities of our authorities only the corpse 
of the kidnapped could be found, but the bandits were 
taken and are now in the hands of justice. 

Last June the Embassy advised that the United States 
citizen W. Tevots had been kidnapped by a band of 
Yaqui Indians in La Colorada, Sonora. As soon as our 
authorities learned the case, forces were sent to pursue 
the Indians and killed three of them. 

Last July a boat of the United States Warship 
Cheyenne, manned by a few marines, steamed up the 
Tamesi River without taking the necessary precautions, 
and was held up outside the city by an armed group of 
men, who stole from the sailors their personal belongings 
and a small amount of money. As soon as our author- 
ities got acquainted with the occurrence they tried to 
investigate the case and the culprits have already been 
fomid, arrested and prosecuted. They will suffer the 
corresponding penalty. 

In the same month the United States Embassy com- 
plained that the American citizen Hiram Hughes had 
[253] 



APPENDIX I 



been arrested by the police at Tampico and had died of 
a wound inflicted on hun. Investigations were made 
and the result was that Hughes had wounded himself, 
being drunk, according to his own deposition signed by 
his own hand. 

In July also the same Embassy presented a claim for 
the murder of Mr. John W. Correll, committed in the 
State of Tamaulipas. As soon as the case was known 
our authorities sent troops after the bandits, and our 
soldiers succeeded in killing four of them and recovering 
things they had stolen. This property was given back 
to their owners while the other marauders who took part 
in the murder of Mr. Correll were captured and are now 
being prosecuted. A heavy penalty will be imposed 
upon them. 

Still in July the Embassy advised that Mr. Lawrence 
L. Shipley was kidnapped in the State of Zacatecas. 
Our authorities gave at once the necessary orders to see 
that Shipley was protected, and this American regained 
his liberty five days later, sane and safe. 

Also in July the Embassy complained that a young man 
by the name of Phillip R. Thompson had been kidnapped 
at the Miraflores Ranch, jurisdiction of Chalco, State of 
Mexico, and a ransom of $1,500 was demanded by the 
bandits. 

The Department of Foreign Affairs informed the 
Embassy that our Government, wishing to do for its 
part all that was possible to prevent international dif- 
ficulties, offered to pay the amount demanded as ran- 
som to save the life of young Thompson, intending of 
course to send the necessary forces in pursuit of the 
marauders. 

[254] 



APPENDIX I 



No ransom was needed to get Thompson out of 
trouble; the authorities stated that they had opportunely 
warned him of the danger he ran by going to the place 
where he lost his liberty. 

The Embassy communicated that in the same month 
of July the United States citizen T. J. Castello had been 
robbed of a considerable nmnber of cattle. Our forces 
started an immediate pursuit of the thieves and fought 
them, taking from them almost all the stolen cattle. 

In May last year the United States citizen Whiteford 
was assassinated by bandits in the State of Nayarit. All 
the bandits who took part in that crime have been killed 
by our forces. 

.On the 14th of last August the United States Embassy 
complained about the offices of the Pen.-Mex. Fuel Com- 
pany having been robbed in Tuxpan. In a second note 
the Embassy insisted that guaranties should be extended 
and had a few unkindly expressions to make. On the 
same date our authorities had already discovered that 
the thieves were four employes of the same company, 
two of whom were shot, part of the money stolen being 
recovered and returned to its owners. 

The enunciation of all these cases is enough to prove 
that all charges made against the Mexican Government 
not to be willing or not to have enough power to punish 
bandits, are perfectly unjust. 

On the 22d of last July the United States Embassy 
sent a note regarding the murder of Peter Catron, de- 
manding the punishment of the murderers and that ade- 
quate measures were taken to prevent any further occur- 
rence of assassination of United States citizens. The 
Embassy added that it had instructions from its Govern- 

[255] 



APPENDIX I 



ment to express to the Mexican Government that if the 
lives of these citizens continued under the same state of 
insecurity through the unwillingness or the inability of 
the same, the United States would be compelled to 
adopt a radical change of its policy toward Mexico. 

The Mexican Department of Foreign Affairs answered 
in regard to the particular case in question, that the 
necessary measures were taken to punish Mr. Catron's 
murderers, and in regard to the last part of the note the 
reply was that Mexico has always shown perfect willing- 
ness to protect all foreigners residing within its ter- 
ritory, proving it with positive facts; that the protection 
afforded by Mexico to foreigners could not be absolute, 
for it does not exist in any part of the world; that our 
Government has always pursued all transgressors of the 
law, punishing them very severely; that the Govern- 
ment of Mexico has been earnestly and constantly work- 
ing to pacify the Republic and has attained frequent 
successes, as proven by the death of Zapata, Blanquet and 
Ines Davila, as well as of many others of lesser im- 
portance; that wishing to prevent the United States 
citizens from being the victims of outrages they are ex- 
posed to, the Government suggests the convenience of 
having them concentrate in populated centres where full 
guaranties shall be enjoyed, and have them also ask for 
military escorts whenever they may need to travel or 
to remain in dangerous zones ; finally, that a conspicuous 
case of Mexico's willingness to protect the lives and in- 
terests of the United States citizens was the offer made of 
escorts for the paymasters of the oil companies, an offer 
which has been refused. The Government has also 
promised to refund any amount of money taken from 
[256] 



APPENDIX I 



the paymasters despite their being escorted, and that for 
all the above reasons the Mexican Government was sur- 
prised at the threat enclosed in the last part of the note. 

Our authorities have recently arrested in Tampico a 
United States citizen by the name of Sam Tolley, who 
has confessed to have committed several assaults in that 
region, and turned over a pistol and a rifle. He also 
gave information regarding another American citizen 
who took part in the assault. His reports on the bands 
of marauders who have held up oil barges are of great 
importance. 

On several occasions our Government has endeavoured 
through our Embassy at Washington to secure the return 
of the custom duties which were collected in the port of 
Vera Cruz by the American forces during the occupation 
of that city, therefore belonging to the Mexican Repub- 
lic. However, no satisfactory result has even been 
achieved, not even a categoric reply. 

The cessation of the European war has ended many 
of the difficulties Mexico had connected with it, to 
which due reference was made in the previous report 
rendered by the Executive to the Honourable Congress of 
the Union. 

The Mexican Republic observed, as it is well known, 
a perfect neutrality during that conflict, for even though 
certain enemies of the Government and people interested 
on various occasions expressed the opinion that the Mex- 
ican Government was not strictly neutral, it must be ad- 
mitted that no one may at present nor shall ever be able 
to mention an act or omission of the Mexican Govern- 
ment to prove the slightest breach of our neutrality if 
judging in accordance with the most exacting principles 
[257] 



APPENDIX I 



of International Law, of the Treaties in force and of 
practices universally established. 

But at the same time, most unfortunately, the rights 
of Mexico as a neutral were not always duly respected, 
for some United States warships remained in exceptional 
cases over twenty-four hours in our territorial waters, 
and have constantly been and still are anchored in Tam- 
pico, under the excuse of affording protection to their 
citizens. 

When the strugg^le was over the Governments of the 
Allied Powers got together to constitute a League of 
Nations, to which it was said that almost all countries 
would have access under certain conditions; all of them 
were invited excepting a few, Mexico among them, and 
our Government has done nothing, nor shall ever do, to 
enter into that international society, because the bases 
upon which it was formed do not establish, neither as 
to its functions nor as to its organization, a perfect 
equality for all nations and all races, while the Mexican 
Government has proclaimed as the main principles of 
its international policy that all the powers of earth must 
have the same rights and the same obligations, and also 
that no individual may pretend to be placed in a priv- 
ileged situation nor demand extraordinary protection in 
a country under the pretext of being a foreigner or for 
any other reason. 

In view that the acceptance of the Monroe Doctrine 
was discussed at the Paris Peace Conference, the Gov- 
ernment of Mexico found itself compelled to make a 
public declaration and notify officially the friendly 
powers, that Mexico had not recognized nor would do it, 

[258] 



APPENDIX I 



that doctrine because it upholds, without the consent of 
all the peoples of America, a thesis and creates a sit- 
uation on which no opinion has ever been consulted 
with such peoples, and therefore that doctrine impairs 
the sovereignty and independence of Mexico and would 
constitute for all the nations of America a forced 
tutelage. 

Last December the French Legation informed the De- 
partment of Foreign Affairs that according to the clauses 
of the Armistice signed at Treveris in November last 
year, the German delegates had agreed with the Allied 
powers not to dispose, without their previous consent, of 
any stock in money, securities, etc., owned in foreign 
countries by the German Government or by private Ger- 
man subjects, and informed also that measures would be 
adopted to deprive of such property whoever might ac- 
quire it through purchase or transfer of any kind, for 
all dealings regarding such property would be fraudu- 
lent. The Italian Legation addressed an identical note 
to our Foreign Office, to which the Mexican Government 
replied that it could not recognize any effect to that 
agreement within our territory, because it was against 
our Constitution, as also against a treaty still in force 
between Mexico and Germany, more so since the Ger- 
man authorities had given no special advice to Mexico 
in diat regard. 

The United States Embassy and the Legations of Italy 
and France in April ult., informed our Department of 
Foreign Afifairs that the Supreme Allied Council of 
Paris had entrusted the United States Government with 
the mission to take from Mexican waters the merchant- 

[259] 



APPENDIX I 



ships belonging to citizens or subjects of enemy coun- 
tries, and that the German Government would notify 
Mexico also in that regard. 

The Department answered that it expected to receive 
Germany's advice in order to then resolve the case and 
such advice was received last July in our Department, 
expressing the agreement to place at the disposal of the 
Allies, while the armistice lasted, German steamships 
from 500 to 2,000 tons. 

The official who was in charge of the British interests 
in Mexico addressed himself directly to the Executive, 
informing that, without including the sailships, the enemy 
ships referred to in the above mentioned notes should 
be delivered to the British Government instead of to the 
United States, as was said before, and that the only ship 
in the conditions described was the Antonina, anchored at 
Tampico. 

Claims. — Some time ago the Mexican Government es- 
tablished the way in which damages would be paid for 
losses sustained during the revolution, by which a proof 
was given to the world that we were moved by a more 
liberal spirit than that shown by other Governments un- 
der similar conditions. It was resolved that natives as 
well as foreigners would apply to the Claims Commit- 
tee to assert their rights, and in case of some foreigners 
disagreeing with the judgment of that board, the case 
would be submitted to the decision of a Mixed Commis- 
sion, formed by a representative of the Mexican Gov- 
ernment, a delegate of the Diplomatic agent from the 
country the claimants belong to, and a third one chosen 
by mutual agreement. The Claims Commission has al- 
ready received applications made by foreigners, the num- 
[260] 



APPENDIX I 



ber of which, as well as the amounts, are as follows: 

33 Claims presented by Spaniards...! 8,602,882.79 

15 do. do. Turks 3,434,196.66 

19 do. do. Germans 657,362.54 

2 do. do. French 282,841.32 

2 do. do. Italians 272,497.50 

9 do. do. U.S. citizens. 139,914.79 

2 do. do. Chinese 38,662.38 

1 do. do. Guatemalan.. 20,000.00 

1 do. do. British subject 9,907.25 

1 do. do. Hollander... 7,700.00 

1 do. do. Austrian 3,225.38 



Total $13,469,190.61 

No foreign Government has ever opposed any objec- 
tion to the purposes Mexico has in view regarding pay- 
ment of indemnities. However, it is remarkable to no- 
tice the contrast there is between the small number of 
claims presented by some, as for instance, by British 
subjects and United States citizens, with the assertion 
generally made regarding the damages they have suf- 
fered. The Mexican Government has all reasons to be- 
lieve that all claims shall be submitted to the respective 
Commissions, especially so on account of the recent 
changes made to the corresponding law and devised to 
meet objections of a secondary character made to the 
presentation of claims against the Government of Mex- 
ico for damages caused during our Civil War, since this 
Government has proved not only to be moved by a spirit 
of justice in this matter, but also to be most desirous of 
dealing with all equity and in a spirit of conciliation. 

[261] 



APPENDIX I 



On the other hand the Congress of the Union will 
vote the necessary amounts to pay the claims approved. 

The relations between Mexico and Great Britain have 
been interrupted, as the Honourable Congress knows well 
and in spite of it the person who was in charge of that 
legation usually addressed himself to the Chief Execu- 
tive in behalf of his fellow-countrymen. In view that 
this created a situation not only unnatural but also 
privileged and unacceptable even in case of that person 
being an Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Min- 
ister well accredited, more so then, when such person had 
no recognized official capacity whatsoever; it became 
necessary to tell that gentleman that his behaviour was 
irregular and improper, especially so since a high au- 
thority of his Government had recently repeated in a 
public manner that Great Britain intended not to main- 
tain relations with Mexico. It was also said that his 
presence in national territory was inconsistent with this 
situation. 

Our diplomatic representative in Peru informed that 
the Government of that country had been overthrown, 
a new administration being organized under the Pres- 
idency of Mr. Augusto B. Leguia. 

Our Legation in Costa Rica reported by wire that 
Mr. Tinoco had left the Presidency and General Juan 
Quiroz assimied the Executive Power. 

Our relations with the Spanish-American countries 
have been now as ever most cordial and without the 
least friction, for on the contrary several occurrences 
have made evident once more the fraternal feelings of all 
the Indo-Latin peoples. 

Unfortunately our Extraordinary Envoy and Pleni- 
[262] 



APPENDIX I 



potentiary Minister to the Republics of Argentine and 
Uruguay, Mr. Amado Nervo, died at Montevideo on the 
24th of last May, and on this account the peoples and 
governments of Uruguay and Argentine made evident 
their fraternal feelings toward Mexico, and their ex- 
traordinary consideration for the deceased official. By 
official decree honours were paid him as Secretary of 
State, and a funeral of exceptional significance was held, 
attended not only by the Diplomatic Corps and certain 
officials, but even the very President of the Republic, His 
Excellency Baltasar Brun. That Government has noti- 
fied our Foreign office that Mr. Nervo's remains will be 
sent to Mexico on board a Uruguayan warship, which 
will probably leave the shores of that friendly country 
in the first days of this month. 

These tokens of singular courtesy speak very highly 
of the fraternal friendship and mutual sympathy bind- 
ing all the Spanish-American Republics, for on this oc- 
casion there was not only the tribute paid by the re- 
spective governments, but also private citizens and the 
general public showed true affection for Mexico. 

Last January our Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipo- 
tentiary Minister before the Government of Guatemala, 
General Jose Bermudez de Castro, died, and the Govern- 
ment of that sister Republic paid him on that account the 
honours due his high position. The corpse was brought 
to Mexico, where the Department of Foreign Affairs ar- 
ranged the ftineral proper for that distinguished official. 

Last May the Republic of Salvador was shaken by 
several earthquakes and the Mexican Government con- 
tributed with $20,000 to help the victims of that catas- 
[263] 



APPENDIX I 



trophe, as it could do no less for a sister Republic which 
has given us so many tokens of friendship. 

Conventions have been concluded for the use of diplo- 
matic mailbags with Peru in March this year, with Chile 
last May and with Costa Rica last July, these treaties to 
be in force as soon as the Senate approves them. 



Boundaries. — The International Commission of Boun- 
daries with the United States has been actively working, 
and it projects a new Treaty on distribution of waters 
from the Bravo and Colorado Rivers. The same body 
has been engaged in works connected with the removal 
of shoals in the lower Rio Grande. 

In regard to our southern boundaries with Guatemala, 
nothing new has occurred except the reconstruction of a 
bridge called " El Talisman," on the Suchiate River. 



Our international trade relations have increased a good 
deal, and in order to meet the actual necessities con- 
nected therewith our Consular Service has been per- 
fected, new offices being opened and we are endeavouring 
in all possible ways to fill vacancies by promotion of 
the oldest and most efficient clerks of the same offices. 

The foreign governments have for their part appointed 
in several cities of the Republic 88 new consular rep- 
resentatives, and the Executive has granted 16 Exequa- 
turs, 36 permanent authorizations and 35 provisional 
ones. 

A good proof of the increase of our foreign trade are 
the figures recorded as income of our Embassy, Lega- 
tions and Consulates on account of legalization of sig- 
[264] 



APPENDIX I 



natures, fees on Manifests and Consular invoices, Mar- 
iners registers and certificates, all of which gave the 
Government an income of $7,255,315.94 during a period 
between September, 1918, and August, 1919, against $5,- 
669,389.94 recorded during the same length of time in 
the previous year, which means an increase of $1,585,- 
926.00. 

During the fiscal year 1908-1910, which was consid- 
ered the most flourishing during the time prior to the 
revolution, the collections made on the same account 
were only $1,248,962.90, and therefore the income of 
last year increased over that sum by more than six 
million pesos. 

The amount collected by legations and consulates is 
far above the whole budget of the Department of For- 
eign Affairs, the Embassy, the Legations and Consul- 
ates all together, for it amounts to $2,400,000 more or 
less. Therefore the services of the Foreign Department 
not only furnish funds for their own expenditures, but 
also give the Erarium an income of considerable import. 

In order to defend the rights of some Mexicans abroad 
the Government paid lawyers' fees during the period I 
speak of amounting to $31,369.22, and repatriated needy 
Mexicans and helped others with pecuniary aid, spend- 
ing $21,623.56 on it through the Foreign Department. 

Sixty aliens applied to the Department, requesting 
papers of Mexican citizenship, during the same months, 
and 55 certificates were issued. 

According to Article 33 of the Constitution 67 for- 
eigners were expelled from the country, belonging to 
different nations. The number of documents legalized 
by the Ofi&ce in the same period was 4,856. 
[265] 



APPENDIX I 



Some 1,656 permits have been granted to foreigners 
to acquire real estate in the Republic, according to the 
prescriptions of Art. 27 of the Constitution. The detail 
is as follows: 

Germans 127 

United States Citizens 415 

Austrians 18 

Argentineans 3 

Belgians 6 

Cubans 6 

Chinese 19 

Danish 3 

Spaniards 615 

French 140 

Greeks 3 

Guatemaleans 1 

Hollanders 13 

Hondurenas 7 

British Subjects 83 

Italians 93 

Japanese 2 

Turks 59 

Rumanians 1 

Salvadoreans 3 

Swedes 5 

Swiss 19 

Uruguayan 3 

Norwegian 4 

Hungarian 8 



Total 1,656 

[266] 



APPENDIX I 



THE PRESIDENT S CONCLUDING REMARKS 

At the conclusion of the reading of the reports of the 
various departments, President Carranza spoke as 
follows: 

From a resume of the aforesaid data you can obtain 
an irrefutable demonstration of the assertions made in 
the foreword of this report, in which I stated that the 
Republic had sensibly progressed in spite of the vain 
designs of the reactionaries and bandits. The interior 
administration is firm and has not been weakened by 
the elections of local officials. It is true that in some 
States elections have provoked effervescence, but the 
local troubles have developed in a legal form. Highly 
significant is the persistency with which our institutions 
have been transformed by means of the initiatives of 
law presented to the Congress, the decrees that the 
Executive has issued in use of its extraordinary powers 
and the regulations that have been approved upon an 
ascending scale of order and justice. The intervened 
properties have been returned to their owners, with the 
exception of those belonging to the responsible accom- 
plices of the uprising in 1913, who have responsibilities 
clearly determined by our constitution. Nationals and 
foreigners have confidence in the interior conditions of 
the Republic and this is proved by the increasing of 
immigration and the return of Mexicans. The solicita- 
tion of concessions to invest capital in the Republic is 
a fact upon which the foreign press have made com- 
ment as well as the investors interested in bringing tQ 
Mexico their elements of labour. Comparison of th© 
importations and exportations of the period pi:eviouSi 

[267] 



APPENDIX I 



to the revolution and the last year, 1918, in which the 
commerce of the world was very much restricted, shows 
that in spite of all circumstances our foreign commerce 
considerably exceeded that of the best years registered 
in our statistics. The exportation was almost double 
that of 1910. The public finances offer a decisive bet- 
terment. In 1917 the deficit was $35,000,000, more or 
less; in 1918 it was $18,000,000, and in the present year 
the expenses will be totally covered. The time is com- 
ing when the Government will begin to pay its debts. 

The army has a disproportionate organization, as it 
was observed that an excess of officials over the troops 
always existed. At present the army is thoroughly or- 
ganized, it is subject to ordinances, and it can be as- 
serted that the discipline is habitual in almost all mili- 
tary components. The majority of the rebel leaders have 
died, and those that still menace the absolute pacification 
are dispersed. As proofs of the national development 
are the statistics of the departments of Communications, 
Industry and Commerce, and of Agriculture and Devel- 
opment, in comparison with the administrative volume of 
the preceding years. In fact, the railroads in exploita- 
tion during 1917 amounted to 11,068 kilometres, and 
at present they cover 13,784 kilometres, administered 
by the government. The postoffices in 1917 were 1,200, 
and at present they are 2,473. The postal routes in that 
year were 39,000 kilometres. At present they are 45,- 
605. Postal drafts amounted to more than $26,219,830 
in the present year, while in 1917 they were only $10,- 
000,000. In 1917 1,057 kilometres of telegraph line 
were constructed and in this year we constructed 1,879 
kilometres. The telegraphic drafts amounted in that 
[268] 



APPENDIX I 



year to $4,000,000, and in the present year they were 
$12,000,000. The mining titles issued in 1915, 1916 
and 1917 were 578, and in the last year they amounted 
to 764, which shows an increase of more than double the 
amount. Patents of invention in 1917 were 500, and in 
the last year 832. Commercial marks registered in 1917 
amounted to 450, and in the last year they were 1,032. 
Regarding agriculture and development, the concessions 
for exploitation of timber suspended in 1917 were 
granted again in the last year. They amounted to six- 
teen. One hundred and forty-six permissions for cutting 
hard wood timber were granted; 36 for the extraction 
of chicle, and 386 for the exploitation of other products. 
The agricultural school is in operation. We have con- 
tinued the purchasing of agricultural machinery in great 
quantities to extend its use among the farmers. From 
the immigration, the prosperity of agriculture and in- 
dustry, the equalization of the expenses and the in- 
come, the solidification of the administration, the ac- 
complishment of all the revolutionary promises, espe- 
cially that regarding lands, the watching of the finances 
of the government, the impulse given to our culture, and 
all the detailed news you have heard, you cannot doubt 
the importance of the labour of the administration which 
has given all the possible profits in accordance with its 
capacity in this period of world wide crisis. 

The respectability of Mexico before all the nations of 
the world has been maintained with the energy and 
prudence demanded by internationalities. The causes of 
trouble can be divided into four different sections: 
Those regarding special conditions on the border of the 
United States; those originated by damages to foreign 
[269] 



APPENDIX I 



properties; those which refer to personal injuries of 
citizens of foreign countries residing in Mexico; and 
those arising from the application of the revolutionary 
laws. Regarding the first one, history mentions the fre- 
quent passage of American troops into the national ter- 
ritory and the problem principally is of policing for 
the safety of both countries. The invasions of American 
troops have been repeated since the middle of last cen- 
tury, and various arrangements have been projected with 
the object of prosecuting the bandits who cross from one 
country into the other. The government believes that 
this cause of trouble will disappear as soon as an agree- 
ment is reached to protect the border. Regarding the 
damages to foreign properties, it may be stated that in 
spite of the fact that a mixed commission of reclama- 
tions has been operating, only a small number of for- 
eigners have demanded indemnizations for the damages 
caused by the revolution since 1913. As a proof of the 
goodwill the government has to repair even the dam- 
ages caused by the bandits, there has been introduced 
into the law of the Commission of Indemnizations a new 
rule of covering the damages caused by bandits, when 
these damages are not caused by the imprudence of the 
injured person, and the authorities can be blamed with 
omissions, and also when the injured persons are not in 
sympathy with the bandits. 

The law recognizes the damages to foreigners and 
pledges to the immediate payment of the indemnization 
with the same limits that are mentioned for the damages 
to properties. Regarding this point, it is to be stated 
that it is impossible for a government, especially after 
a revolution, to prevent in all the regions of the nation 
[270] 



APPENDIX I 



the attacks against nationals or foreigners. The effi- 
cacy with which the government has punished those re- 
sponsible for offences against foreigners is very signifi- 
cant, when it is considered that Mexico and the United 
States have unfortunately been in the same circum- 
stances regarding the attacks that the inhabitants of one 
country have committed against the citizens of the other. 
It would be desirable that the diplomatic representatives 
accredited in this republic should advise constantly their 
nationals to exercise more prudence with the purpose of 
avoiding the causes of trouble. The Executive hopes 
that when the cause of imprudence is removed, and the 
protection of the troops and of the police is intensified, 
the attacks will be more scarce and the difficulties will 
have less importance. 

The foreigners residing in the country are so con- 
vinced of the sincerity of and efficacy of the government 
to give guaranties that in spite of the accidents occurring 
in our country the naturalization of citizens and sub- 
jects of other countries increases every day, because they 
have confidence in the authorities and in the laws, as is 
proven by the many foreigners that have adjusted them- 
selves to the requisites demanded by the supreme law to 
obtain real estate. 

The fourth cause of trouble is of a severe nature. It 
deals with objections that are practically a limitation 
to our national sovereignty. The revolution has put in 
force reforms that represent the welfare and the progress 
and tranquillity of the Mexican people, renewing its in- 
stitutions in important branches, as that regarding lands 
and the exploitation of the natural wealth. The govern- 
ment desires to respect and consolidate the existent rights, 

[271] 



APPENDIX I 



but it absolutely cannot accept the limitation of the lib- 
erty of the Mexicans to be governed in accordance with 
their own needs. A conciliatory spirit and a desire for 
harmony in accordance with the law will be exerted to 
conquer the difficulties which may arise, but always main- 
taining firm our sovereignty. Mexico will comply with 
its obligations with nationals and foreigners. The doubts 
arising in this matter have been due only to mininterpre- 
tations of the conduct of the government, which is not 
capable of denying its legitimate obligations. The de- 
lay in the payment is due to motives that cannot be over- 
come at present. 

The Executive has given a preferent place to the leg- 
islation on petroleum, as is proven by the peremptory 
character with which was sent the project of law to the 
Chambers on the 1st of May, when the extraordinary pe- 
riod of sessions was inaugurated. 

The actual situation promises for the next year a 
greater progress in the conditions of the government. 
The Executive hopes that he will have the goodwill of the 
legislative and judicial powers, with the purpose of 
maintaining the increasing moral and material activities 
of the life of the Republic, as I have informed you. 
In conclusion, it is logical to conclude that if all the 
exterior troubles can be evaded or removed, the vigorous 
interior resurgement of the country will assure the fruits 
of all the sacrifices and will maintain its march in the 
development marked at present with a great success. 



[272] 



APPENDIX II 

PROOF OF THE PLOT; BEING A POSTSCRIPT 
BY THE AUTHOR 

In accordance with Senate Resolutions numbers 106 
and 163, the sub-committee of the Senate Committee on 
Foreign Relations met Monday, September 8, 1919, in 
the Senate Office Building, Washington to begin "an in- 
vestigation of Mexican affairs." The sub-committee was 
clothed by these resrolutions with all the powers of a high 
court of justice for the purpose of investigating "the mat- 
ter of damages and outrages suffered by citizens of the 
United States in the Republic of Mexico, including the 
number of citizens who have been killed or have suf- 
fered personal outrages in Mexico and the amount of 
proper indemnity for such murders and outrages; the 
quantity of damages suffered on account of the destruc- 
tion, confiscation, and larceny of personal property for 
such murders and outrages," etc., since the retirement of 
Porfirio Diaz; and the resolution also provided that "the 
said committee shall further investigate and report to 
the Senate what, if any, measures should be taken to 
prevent a recurrence of such outrages." 

The sub-committee consisted of Albert B. Fall, of New 
Mexico; Frank B. Brandegee, of Connecticut, Republi- 
cans; and Marcus A. Smith, of Arizona, Democrat. Mr. 
Smith has been absent from the sittings of the sub-com- 
mittee because of ill-health. Mr. Brandegee has fre- 
quently been absent, and the entire direction of the sub- 
committee's activities have vested in Senator Fall. 

According to the Washington correspondent of the 
[273] 



APPENDIX II 



New York Sun, in announcing the appointment of the 
sub-committee to investigate Mexico: 

"Mr. Fall for years has been demanding a vigorous 
policy in Mexico. He is at once the best informed man 
in Congress as to all Mexican affairs, and the most bit- 
ter critic of the Administration's policy there. Likewise, 
he has been an outspoken enemy of the Carranza regime." 

According to the New York Times, in an editorial 
commenting on Senator Fall's opening session as Chair- 
man of this Sub-Committee: 

"Senator Fall has never concealed his opinion of the 
course the United States Government should adopt in the 
matter. Speaking at the Lawyers' Club in this city two 
years ago he said: 

" 'I favour the immediate organization of an army of 
500,000 men, ostensibly for the policing of Mexico or 
for the invasion of that country, to protect our citizens, 
if necessary. I do not mean that the United States should 
annex Mexico; that I would never agree to, but it should 
be kept in a peaceful condition as a buffer State between 
this country and the Latin-American republics to the 
south of it.' 

"In the Senate on March 9, 1914, Mr. Fall urged the 
employment of the 'land and naval forces,' to protect 
'our citizens and other foreigners in Mexico,' and to 
pacify the country. He affected to believe that the in- 
tervention he proposed would not be an act of war, but 
was sharply corrected by Senator Shively of Indiana." 

According to the New York Globe of September 9th: 

"Senator Fall, on the other hand, left little doubt that 
he was there not to find out the truth about Mexico but to 
drag from the witness facts in support of his own pre- 
[274] 



APPENDIX II 



vious conviction. It is indeed unfortunate that at a crisis 
in our relations with Mexico this country's sole official 
investigation of the situation should be in the hands of a 
committee which is dominated by active interventionist 
beliefs, with a minority which is bitterly anti-adminis- 
tration. The truth can hardly be expected to come out 
other than badly battered through such a tortuous pas- 
sage." 

At all the sessions of the sub-committee included in 
this review there were present Edward L. Doheny, Presi- 
dent of the largest group of American oil companies op- 
erating in Mexico; Harold Walker, his confidential rep- 
resentative; Charles Hudson Boynton, Executive Director 
of the National Association for the Protection of Ameri- 
can Rights in Mexico, and press agent for various oil in- 
terests; Agnes G. Laut and William Gates, authors of 
numerous articles attacking the present regime" in Mex- 
ico, some of whom were under subpoena. 

The interest of the Gommittee on Mexico of the League 
of Free Nations Association was dual. First, the com- 
mittee desired to establish by the testimony of those of 
its members who had recently visited Mexico that con- 
ditions there have greatly improved, and that there is no 
need of an intervention on the part of the United States; 
second, that an elaborate propaganda chiefly directed by 
the oil interests, was seeking to influence the press and 
to inflame public sentiment against Mexico, with a view 
to an American intervention. 

As a member of the committee I feel that it has proved 
its case, although the efforts of Senator Fall to discredit 
its witnesses fill a large part of the first two volumes of 
the printed testimony, with which this statement exclu- 
[275] 



APPENDIX II 



sively deals. There is no doubt in my mind that Senator 
Fall will achieve his purpose of painting a picture of 
Mexico in the most sombre colours, in accordance with 
the phobia against Mexico which has been his distinguish- 
ing characteristic in public life. 

At the beginning of the hearings, Senator Fall read 
into the record letters from James G. McDonald, chair- 
man of the Executive Committee of the League of Free 
Nations Association, New York, one of which contained 
the following paragraphs: 

"Several of the members of our Mexican committee 
have been in Mexico recently, and are in a position to 
give information regarding present-day conditions there. 
They will be glad to appear before your committee at 
your convenience. 

"May we not venture to express the hope that the 
Senate sub-committee will exercise more discretion in its 
selection of witnesses than did the House Committee on 
Rules? 

"Denunciations of a Government with which the United 
States continues to be in friendly treaty relations by a 
go-between for various bandit chiefs were widely ex- 
ploited through the press recently, and as loyal Ameri- 
cans we hope your conmaittee will not lend itself to 
similar propaganda." 

Dr. Samuel Guy Inman, executive secretary of the 
Committee on Co-operation in Latin America, and a mem- 
ber of the Committee on Mexico of the League of Free 
Nations Association, was the first witness. Senator 
Fall's attitude toward Dr. Inman and that of the other 
witnesses offered by the Committee on Mexico, was 
marked throughout by deliberate discourtesy which con- 
[276] 



APPENDIX II 



trasted strongly with the sympathetic attitude he mani- 
fested when E. L. Doheny, Agnes C. Laut, and various 
other witnesses representing the oil interests were testify- 
ing. Dr. Inman had been for ten years teacher of a 
mission school in Mexico, where he became personally 
acquainted with Mr. Carranza, whose farm was nearby, 
and had visited Mexico in the spring of 1919 to attend 
a missionary conference held there. Senator Fall de- 
sired Dr. Inman to give the committee precise informa- 
tion regarding the nationalization of women and the ex- 
tent of venereal disease among little girls in Mexico. 
Dr. Inman denied that there was either law or custom 
for nationalization of Mexican women. The following 
dialogue is then reported on page 72 of the printed 
record : 

The Chairman. And you know nothing about the outrages of 
little children in Mexico which have filled the hospitals now wiih 
those children suffering with venereal diseases? 

Dr. Inman. No, sir; I never heard of that. 

The Chairman. You have not been in the hospitals of Mexico? 

Dr. Inman. No, sir. 

The Chairman. You have been writing about Mexico and con- 
ditions in Mexico? 

Dr. Inman. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Do you not think you might very well have 
spent a few days in the city of Mexico and in the hospitals among 
these poor people? 

Dr. Inman. If I had done everything you had suggested this 
afternoon, I never would have gotten to write that book. 

The Chairman. If you did not do some of those things, you 
should never have written the book. I have not written a book. 

Dr. Inman. I hope some day you will write a book. 

The Chairman. I am going to write a chapter before we get 
through with this investigation. 

We will be in recess until 11 o'clock tomorrow. 

Dr. Inman told of extensive travels through Latin 
America for missionary purposes, and of the better- 

[277] 



APPENDIX II 



ment of relations between the countries visited and the 
United States, and added: "I believe our relationships 
to Mexico have a great deal to do with our relationships 
with all of Latin America. We are now in a new day 
in Pan Americanism. ... I feel convinced that if . . . 
we should have armed intervention in Mexico that that 
would prejudice all Latin-American countries, and would 
set back this development of Pan American friendship 
in a way that could not be described; in a very, very, 
large way. Therefore I think that in all our dealings 
with the Mexican question we should take into account 
the whole of Pan America." He continued: 

"In the second place, I would like to call the commit- 
tee's attention to the interests of the missionary forces 
of North America in Mexico. There are probably 150 
to 200 American missionaries in Mexico at the present 
time. They have had the best year in their history dur- 
ing 1918 and 1919. The mission schools are all 
crowded; the churches are crowded. From six hundred 
to a thousand people come together in one church in 
Mexico City every Sunday, and the churches are crowded 
to capacity in Mexico City, in Chihuahua, in Guadala- 
jara, in Puebla, in Vera Cruz, in Yucatan, and I might 
say in practically every region of Mexico. These mis- 
sionaries are scattered all over Mexico, in practically 
every part of the country. Their schools are crowded 
at the present time; their hospitals are overrun, and 
there are continual demands for their services." 

Asked if he got his impressions of present day condi- 
tions in Mexico from the Mexican newspapers. Dr. Inman 
said: 

"No, sir; I got it, first from my own experience down 
[278] 



APPENDIX II 



there in January, February, and March, and I got it 
from the missionaries who are located in all parts of 
Mexico and with whom I have continued correspondence. 
For instance, in January there were 22 representatives 
of mission boards who went to attend a conference in 
the city of Mexico. Some of them went into Mexico by 
way of Arizona and went down the west coast through 
Sonora, through Guadalajara to Mexico City; others 
came through El Paso, down to Chihuahua and Durango 
to Mexico City. Others came from Eagle Pass and others 
from Laredo down through Monterey and San Luis to 
Mexico City; others through Brownesville and Tampico 
to Mexico City; others from Vera Cruz. Some of these 
ladies and gentlemen had not travelled in Mexico and 
did not speak any Spanish, but they all arrived without 
any untoward event whatsoever, in the city of Mexico, and 
we had our conference there. I should be glad to read 
here a resolution that was passed at the time." 

The Chairman. Give the date of it, please. 
Dr. Inman (reading) : 

The conference of Christian workers meeting in the City of 
Mexico, February 17 to 22, 1919, wishes to express its deep grati- 
tude for the cordial way in which it has been received by all the 
people and for the fact that improved conditions and the open- 
mindedness of the people permit Christian work to be carried on 
in all parts of the Republic, with protection and welcome for the 
workers. 

The 20 delegates from the United States, before arriving at the 
capital, have visited their work in all sections of the country, 
the routes of some being through Nogales, Sonora, Sinaloa, and 
Guadalajara; others through El Paso, Chihuahua, and Aguas 
Calientes; others through Laredo, Monterey, and Saltillo; others 
through Matamoras, Victoria, Tampico, and San Luis Potosi; and 
others through Vera Cruz, Jalapa, and Puebla. Such travel has 
been attended with no untoward incident whatever, and with a 
far greater degree of comfort than was anticipated. 

Many encouraging evidences were found of the fact that the 

[279] 



APPENDIX II 



country is slowly but surely returning to normal conditions, so- 
cially, economically, and politically. While some outlying districts 
are still greatly disturbed, practically all the centres exhibit stable 
conditions. 

We recognize keenly the many difficulties against which the 
Government is working in restoring the country to a normal life, 
and register our hearty sympathy with the Mexican people in their 
earnest struggle toward the real democracy. 

We pledge ourselves to do all within our power to promote a 
closer friendship and clearer understanding between the two 
neighbouring Republics, both by making known in the United 
States the real developments and deep aspirations we have found 
among the Mexican people, and by encouraging in every possible 
way the increase of those institutions and movements which are 
set to aid Mexico in her struggle toward a new life. 

In regard to the propaganda for an intervention in 
Mexico, Dr. Inman, who is the author of a recent book 
setting forth what intervention means, quoted the Field 
Secretary of the National Association for the Protection 
of American Rights in Mexico, as reported in a San 
Francisco newspaper, in part as follows: 

"Seeking the support of local leaders, Maj. John G. 
MacDonnell, United States Army, one of Lieut. Gen. 
Hunter Liggett's staff in France, arrived in San Francisco 
yesterday to promote plans to solve the Mexican prob- 
lem. Maj. MacDonnell is field secretary for the National 
Association for the Protection of American Rights in 
Mexico. Membership in the association is held by more 
than 600 banks, industrial and commercial institutions 
in the United States. San Francisco will be asked to fall 
in line, Maj. MacDonnell says, in upholding Congress 
and the administration in whatever policy is mandatory 
for the correction of present intolerable conditions. 

" 'The placid indifference with which killing of more 
than 300 American citizens in Mexico within the last few 
years is regarded,' says Maj. MacDonnell, 'to say noth- 
ing of the attempted confiscation of American property 

[280] 



APPENDIX II 



worth more than a billion dollars, would appear to in- 
dicate the need for somebody to assume the leadership in 
arousing the torpid public conscience. 

" 'Our association, for which I am seeking the support 
of San Francisco, was formed to arouse, organize, and 
lead public sentiment which would support Congress and 
the administration in taking, without further delay, 
whatever steps may be necessary to secure protection for 
the lives and property of American citizens wherever they 
may be and to compel that respect for the American flag 
which has been so conspicuously lacking in Mexico for 
the greater part of 80 years. 

" 'We did not hesitate to take energetic steps for the 
protection of American citizens in China in the Boxer 
rebellion of 1900. We recognized the right and duty 
of a government to protect its citizens temporarily re- 
siding in foreign lands, when Italy demanded and re- 
ceived, without demur on our part, reparation for the 
lynching of some of its citizens in New Orleans. In- 
deed, the duty of a government to protect its citizens 
wherever they may be seems to be fully understood every- 
where but in America today. That is the purpose for 
which governments are created. 

" 'The Mexican situation concerns not alone those who 
have invested large sums in Mexico, nor the survivors of 
thousands of colonists who have lost everything they pos- 
sessed and whose families have been murdered. It is a 
matter which vitally interests every man, woman, and 
child in America. 

" 'Mexico is the haven or refuge to which the I. W. W. 
were sent to be tortured by German propagandists. The 
product of this joint labour of anarchy and kultur was 
[281] 



APPENDIX II 



Bolshevism, which was first put into effect in Mexico in 
all its details, even to public ownership of women and 
corruption of children. The truth is that there is no or- 
ganized government in Mexico. Carranza is merely the 
nominal head of a movement and does not even control 
his own so-called government. The control rests in the 
hands of military chieftains who acknowledge no al- 
legiance to Carranza, except that which is gained through 
being provided with money. Only one-half of 1 per 
cent, of the people of Mexico are responsible for the 
crimes that are committed there. 

" 'Chaos is the only word which describes the situation 
when we attempt to view it as a whole. Under such 
conditions is it not imperative that America should be 
aroused to the menace of the southern border? Those 
who originated the National Association for the Protec- 
tion of American Rights in Mexico thought so. And no 
violent protests against its aims and activities have 
emanated from Washington,' " 

To offset that call to arms by a soldier who has not 
been in Mexico, Dr. Inman, a teacher knowing the coun- 
try well, said: 

"The officers of the Federal Council of Churches, the 
Chicago Federal Council of Churches, the missionary 
boards, the missionaries themselves in Mexico, and so far 
as I know the Christian leaders all over the United States, 
are entirely opposed to armed intervention. I have sub- 
mitted certain editorials from the religious press to sub- 
stantiate that statement. 

"I do not care to create the impression at all, if it 
were possible, that things are all right in Mexico today; 
[282] 



APPENDIX II 



but I would like for all of us to realize that after a period 
of revolution every country has had in its history a period 
of reconstruction, and that Mexico today is striving with 
the same problems largely that we strove with in the time 
following the Civil War and the difficulties of catching 
Villa, for example, are similar to the difficulties we found 
in suppressing banditry, the James boys and others in 
the western part of the United States ; and that conditions 
are gradually growing better; indeed, more rapidly than 
most of us in the United States have any idea of. 

"As to Mr. Carranza, who is largely the bone of con- 
tention here, I believe that Mr. Carranza is an honest and 
capable man. I recognize his faults. He is ultra-inter- 
nationalistic. He is very sensitive and the attacks of the 
American press on Mr. Carranza have caused him to be 
exceedingly sensitive as to what has been said about him 
here. He has been called a thief and a liar and a robber 
and everything that certain parts of the American press 
could invent. 

"That has made Mr. Carranza naturally very resent- 
ful. I knew him a3 a neighbour in the State of Coahuila 
when I was director of the People's Institute there several 
years ago. Knowing him as a neighbour, I formed a 
high opinion of him as a man, and his belief in a demo- 
cratic form of government. I believe that he is not anti- 
American, for he has done too much for American 
schools; he has employed too many of the young men 
who have been educated in American institutions; he 
has 'sent too many teachers and students to the United 
States, and he has had friendship with too many Ameri- 
can people in Mexico for me to believe that he is anti- 
[283] 



APPENDIX II 



American. I believe that he is very much pro-Mexican. 
He is trying to work out a policy of Mexico for the 
Mexicans." 

Bishop Cannon, of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
South, who is in charge of the work of his church both 
in Mexico and among the Mexicans on the American 
side of the border told of improved material and spir- 
itual conditions during his last visit to Mexico, saying: 
"I think, perhaps, we have had more accessions to the 
church this year, the old missionaries tell me, than they 
have had for many years." He continued: 

"As an illustration, I went in at Eagle Pass about the 
1st of August in an automobile, a Ford car, and drove 
through the interior of the country. I was very much 
amused to read something some gentleman had written, 
who seems to be a German — Altendorf, I think his name 
was — in which he said it was not safe for anybody to go 
down there, that they would be murdered. I went out in 
that car with a Mexican driver and a missionary and 
rode into the interior of the State of Coahuila, after dark, 
after 10 o'clock at night. I remember I stopped at Al- 
lende. I found the Mexican people there sufficiently 
prosperous to put down $6,000 if our missionaries would 
put down $6,000 to build a new church, to cost $12,000 
in a town of about 10,000, which I didn't think was very 
bad, even for the United States. Over in Saltillo a man 
came from Turan, which was either in Nuevo Leon or 
Tamaulipas, and said, 'If you will put down $3,500, we 
will buy the lot and put in $3,500 to build the church.' 

"Now, those are straws, but they are the straws that 
come my way. 

"We believe, gentleman of the committee, that the best 
[284] 



APPENDIX II 



solution for Mexico would be the largest possible amount 
of sympathy for them, the bearing with their mistakes, 
remembering that she has about 70 per cent, illiterate 
people who can not read a newspaper for themselves, 
and are dependent on other people to tell them what is 
going on in the world, and who are easily influenced by 
these things, and to realize that they have been and are 
under a tremendous handicap." 

Dr. George B. Winton, another member of the Com- 
mittee of Mexico of the League of Free Nations Assocfa- 
tion, also gave a favourable picture of the Mexico of to- 
day, although careful to show that recovery from the ef- 
fects of the revolution was not complete. In his clos- 
ing statement, Dr. Winton said: 

"I might say just one word, Mr. Chairman, before I 
leave the stand. In deprecation of misunderstandings 
among those of us who are interested in Mexico, you will 
find among other things that I have written phrases that 
seem to point in the direction of a charge that there are 
persons interested in promoting intervention, and that 
they are active. What I wish to say in regard to that 
is that the weakening of the hands of the Mexican Gov- 
ernment in the present juncture by painting very gloomy 
and exaggerated pictures of social and economic condi- 
tions in Mexico, creates the impression in the mind of 
the average man that the only way it can be remedied is 
by armed intervention. That is how it arises that some- 
times the phrase is used that those who speak and write 
against Carranza are speaking and writing in favour of 
intervention. It is not a charge that they are intending 
to do that, necessarily; it is simply qualifying the out- 
come of their work. I am obliged to say thgt \ {lave ha(J 
[285] 



APPENDIX II 



a good deal of experience in that line, and I am afraid 
that is the tendency of it." 

James G. McDonald, chairman of the League of Free 
Nations Association, and of its Committee on Mexico, 
gave a brief survey of the activities of the Association 
regarding Mexico, which set forth that: 

"The immediate program is, first, syndicating gratis 
daily and Sunday feature material to the press through- 
out the country, presenting fact statements of actual con- 
ditions in Mexico. 

"Second, co-operating with societies throughout the 
country interested in justice for Mexico. 

"Third, preparing for a Mexican conference in New 
York City, and urging the holding of similar conferences 
elsewhere. 

"Fourth, arranging, in co-operation with other socie- 
ties, for a mass meeting at Madison Square Garden. 

"Fifth, acting as a medium for the creation of a com- 
mission of five or six nationally known and representa- 
tive Americans, to investigate and report on actual con- 
ditions in Mexico. 

"Sixth, studying the situation from every angle, with 
a view to aiding in the formulation of a Mexican policy, 
at once economically sound and socially justifiable." 

Mr. McDonald suggested the names of a number of 
gentlemen prepared to give first hand information re- 
garding Mexico, offered to supply the committee with 
an auditof^s statement showing receipts and expenditures 
with the names of all contributors since the formation of 
the Committee on Mexico, and suggested that a similar 
auditor's statement be required from the National Asso- 
ciation for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico. 

[286] 



APPENDIX II 



Another witness was the author of this book. I was 
asked if I received money for my services from Mr. Car- 
ranza, although the chairman had in his possession when 
putting the question an affidavit in which I had disclosed 
the sources of my income and the nature of my employ- 
ment for a ten year period, and stated that I was still 
a confidential employe of the United States Government 
on indefinite leave of absence. 

I then read a memo of which part is quoted: 

I am a member of the Mexican Committee of the League of 
Free Nations Association and of the association itself, and have 
been chiefly responsible for the activities of the committee in its 
attempt to reply to the propaganda favouring an intervention in 
Mexico. 

Having been threatened with a libel suit by the Association of 
Oil Producers in Mexico in their letter published in the Nation, 
I have avoided any specific mention of the oil interests by name. 
The Nation of July 26, 1919, page 108 

The Secretary. What is that reference, please? 

Mr. de Bekker. The Nation, of July 26, 1919, page 108. But 
assuming that the statements made before the committee are 
privileged — I am right in that, am I not. Senator? 

The Chairman. If you desire to claim privilege; yes, sir. 

Mr. de Bekker. I do desire to claim privilege. 

I give the list of the oil interests concerned, which Mr. Mc- 
Donald our chairman, did not have in his possession when testify- 
ing before the committee: California Petroleum Co., Continental 
Mexican Petroleum Co., Freeport & Mexican Fuel Oil Corporation, 
Huasteca Petroleum Co., Mexican Gulf Oil Co., Mexican Petro- 
leum Co. (Ltd.), of Delaware, Mexican Petroleum Corporation, 
National Oil Co., Pan-American Petroleum & Trading Co., 
Panuco-Boston Oil Co., Port Lobos Petroleum Co., Snowden & 
McSweeny, Southern Oil & Transport Corporation, Standard Oil 
Co. of New Jersey, Tamiahua Oil Co., The Texas Co., Tuxpam 
Petroleum Co., Union Oil Co. of California, Union Petroleum Co. 
Among the most active individual propagandists are Edward L. 
Doheny, leader of the entire group of oil interests operating in 
Mexico; I. Jewell Williams, a Philadelphia lawyer, who is also 
president of the Boston-Panuco Oil Co.; and Burton W. Wilson, 
a New York lawyer in the employ of the Standard Oil Co., or 
those of its subsidiary corporations operating in Mexico. Charles 
Hudson Boynton, at one time superintendent of the Associated 
Press in Washington, is the press agent for this group. The list 



X 



[287] 



APPENDIX II 



is probably not complete, but Mr. Boynton can give a complete 
list of the Association of Oil Producers in Mexico, of which he 
is also press agent. All of the corporations above named are 
members of the National Association for the Protection of Ameri- 
can Rights in Mexico, of which Mr. Boynton is "executive direc- 
tor" (which may be interpreted press agent), with offices at 347 
Fifth Avenue, New York; Frank J. Silsbee is styled secretary of 
the National Association for the Protection of American Rights in 
Mexico, and in the absence of these persons the office appears to 
be in charge of Harry W. Berbie. 

I then suggested that C. H. Boynton, Agnes C. Laut, 
and William Gates might throw additional light on the 
propaganda of the oil companies for an intervention in 
Mexico, offered various instances of specific propaganda, 
including the Altendorf letters issued by the National As- 
sociation for the Protection of American Rights in Mex- 
ico, the "atrocity" stories of Miss Laut and her picture 
fake in the Independent, the fake map of Mexico in va- 
rious newspapers, and other proof of a circumstantial 
\ nature pointing to a plot to intervene. The following 
colloquy occurred toward the close of my testimony: 

Senator Brandegee. Give me circumstances that caused you 
to believe there is a plot in this country to force armed interven- 
tion in Mexico. 

Mr. DE Bekker. I would say for one thing. Senator Fall's 
presence as head of this committee, as shown in my letter to him. 

Senator Brandegee. One minute. Who put up that plot? 

Mr. DE Bekker. I am sure I do not know who did that. 

Senator Brandegee. Do you mean to say that because the 
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United 
States Senate appointed Senator Fall chairman of this committee, 
that is evidence of a plot to force armed intervention in Mexico? 

Mr. DE Bekner. That, I would say, is strong circumstantial 
evidence. 

Senator Brandegee. That is what you call strong circumstan- 
tial evidence? 

The Chairman. You claimed immunity in your testimony. If 
you read that, you read it without any immunity. You are not 
going to read that into this record. 

Mr. DE Bekker. I see I am not. 

[288] 



APPENDIX U 



The letter referred to was in the form of an affidavit, 
and Senator Fall had repeatedly refused to admit it to 
the record, possibly because it contained pointed refer- 
ences to the Senator's notorious hatred of Mexico and 
Mr. Carranza. 

Miss Laut, for whom Senator Fall at once called the 
first and only night session of his committee, and who 
had represented herself while in Mexico to be the cor- 
respondent of the Saturday Evening Post, told how she 
met some members of the National Association for the 
Protection of American Rights in Mexico, and was asked 
if she would make a report on economic conditions to 
various members of the Association. 

Senator Brandegee. That is the Association for the Protection 
of American Rights in Mexico? 

Miss Laut. Yes, sir. I was asked to make that report, be- 
cause, after all, the stability of a country depends on human 
conditions, and that is what I wanted to get. I agreed to do that. 
Shall I go right on with my visit to Mexico? 

The Chairman. Yes. But first, how were your expenses paid 
down there, if any one paid them? 

Miss Laut. That brought up a very fine point. I agreed that 
I would make them a report if they would pay such expenses that 
would make it possible for me to take a constant companion, be- 
cause I saw an international scrap coming, and I know the danger 
of blackmail in those international scraps, and I always take with 
me on those trips a married sister or an unmarried sister. I 
always go on such long trips, purely as a protection from mis- 
representation, with a sister. They agreed, not the protective 
association, because it was not fully formed, but they agreed per- 
sonally that the expenses of that trip would be sufficiently covered 
to take along a companion to cover blackmail protection. 

Miss Laut testified that her present job was linking up 
the financial interests with the churches, to help Mexico, 
and said that a single article she wrote brought in $40,000 
in contributions. 



[289] 



APPENDIX II 



The Chairman. By what organization of ministers or churches 
was that money paid? 

Miss Laut. Senator, it rather scares me to say that the money 
was paid to me personally; that the only way that I could keep 
free of any charge that I had handled that money through a per- 
sonal account, I immediately indorsed it over to the head of the 
Latin-American Church Bureau. 

The Chairman. Who was that? 

Miss Laut. May I give you that name in executive session or 
shall I do it now? I will give it to you now. Dr. Teeter. The 
witnesses so far know so little of what the churches are actually 
doing that they do not know that the big church movement is 
under way in Mexico now and the members of the movement are 
in Mexico now working on that. 

Miss Laut was indignant at the thought that she or any 
of her associates favoured an intervention in Mexico, 
saying: 

"We are told in the Bible that we must bear the in- 
firmities of the weak. It seems to me the same Good 
Book says that you shall not bear false witness against 
your neighbour. At the very time that the charge was 
made that the oil interests were financing intervention, 
the oil interests had put up $40,000 to help the church 
campaign, the union of Protestant and Catholic churches, 
to place before the American public the necessity of 
helping Mexico." 

Her view of how not to intervene was expressed as 
follows: 

Senator Brandegee. What effect would it have in Mexico if 
this Government did intervene, with an army annoimcing that it 
came to establish order and stop the banditry and to help them 
to help themselves to set up some form of government of their 
own, that they were not going to stay there or annex their terri- 
tory or anything of that kind? Have you any means of forming 
an opinion as to how that proposition would be received by the 
people of Mexico? 

Miss Laut. Well, I have been told by their own leaders that 
if such a beneficent pacification were undertaken and followed by 
thousands of cars of food that a hurdle 16 feet high would not 



[290] 



APPENDIX II 



stop the population coming en masse behind and supporting the 
movement. 

Senator Brandegee. Well, I have heard both sides. I have 
heard people state both opinions. I see that some of the military 
chiefs of Mexico state that any attempt by this country to send 
troops there and establish order would combine the whole popula- 
tion of Mexico against us, that the Carranzistas and all the bandits 
would immediately make common cause against the invader. I 
wondered whether you were able to form an opinion about the 
probabilities of that? 

Miss Laut. I think it is pretty largely politics for home con- 
sumption. 

Senator Brandegee. It seems to me now — I do not know how 
you look at it — but it seems to me no financial interests in this 
country can back up such an angel down there and endow him 
with the necessary funds to help this armed movement without 
being charged with fomenting a revolution in a foreign state with 
which we are at peace, and our Government certainly could not 
do it as a government without laying itself liable to the same 
charge. 

Miss Laut. But, Mr. Senator, we are not at peace. We don't 
keep a border control at a cost of $150,000,000 if we are at 
peace. 

Senator Brandegee. But we have not declared war on them. 

Miss Laut. I know, but the peace is not there. We are simply 
fooling ourselves, bluflBng ourselves. 

Charles Hudson Boynton, press agent for various pe- 
troleum associations, and "executive director" of the Na- 
tional Association for the Protection of American Rights 
in Mexico filed articles issued by the National Associa- 
tion for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico, 
including atrocity stories, which occupy a special place 
of honour in Part 2 of the printed record, pages 438 to 
468, but without including the monthly bulletin of his 
organization, nor the mimeographed sheets issued to the 
Washington correspondents by his branch bureau there. 

Senator Brandegee. We have asked the other representatives 
of these other associations that have appeared before us what their 
salaries were; that is, the publicity men, so to speak. What is 
your salary? 

Mr. Boynton. $20,000 a year. 

[291] 



APPENDIX II 



Mr. William Gates was permitted to read into the rec- 
ord his correspondence with Secretary Baker, but 
has not testified since the U. S. State Department for- 
warded to Chairman Campbell, of the House Committee 
on Rules, the letter accrediting him to Mr. Campbell 
from the bandit Amezcua, then in Havana. The death of 
Amezcua has subsequently been reported from Mexico 
City. He had attempted to return to Mexico to assist 
in revolutionary schemes. 

It will be noted that the Protestant Missions operated 
from the United States are keenly opposing the proposed 
intervention, many of the witnesses appearing before the 
Fall committee being identified with these organizations. 
The Catholic opposition is now being voiced in an influ- 
ential section of that church's press. The Committee on 
Mexico therefore should call especial attention to the 
eloquent and pathetic appeal issued from Chicago, April 
4, by three Mexican Archbishops, then in exile, now in 
Mexico, thanks to a reconciliation efifected by Mgr. 
Burke : 

The late war has spread desolation and destruction 
over large areas of the earth: has shaken our social fab- 
ric to its foundations: has left in a maimed, starving, and 
plague-stricken condition multitudes of our fellow-men: 
and has filled the world with the lamentations of the be- 
reaved and the suffering. As the common father of man- 
kind and as the custodian of the Christian world, the 
Sovereign Pontiff" has appealed to us all in the name of 
God and for the sake of humanity, not merely to bind 
up the wounds of our civilization, but, through steadfast 
advocacy of justice to all peoples, also to point the way 
to permanent peace and goodwill. Even while we in 
[292] 



APPENDIX II 



love and charity labour to fulfil this duty which Chris- 
tianity imposes upon us arid which the Holy Father so 
eloquently requires of us, there are others who fan old 
fears, and rekindle old hates. A small, selfish, but very 
powerful minority still pervert and obscure the interests 
of the plain people. The rights of the weakest continue 
to be sacrificed to the interests of the strongest. 

In Mexico, anarchy is abetted by a few aliens; and ~^ 

our people are angered by unwarranted foreign interfer- 
ence in their domestic concerns, an indignity which a 
proud and sovereign race cannot lightly endure. Th6 
purpose of these activities is made plain by a press 
which is filled with the threats and portents of a new- 
war, the work of a small group of heartless or thought- 
less men against our own well-beloved people of Mexico. 

We, the undersigned bishops of Mexico, sustained in 
our exile by our faith and trust in God and by l-ove of 
our country, share the hopes and tribulations of our 
people. We rejoice in their gladness, and grieve over 
their sorrows. And in obedience to the command of our 
blessed Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, in conformity 
with the behest of His Vicar, our Sovereign Pontiff, and 
dominated by our ever vigilant solicitude for the safety 
and well-being of those committed to our care, we are 
impelled to appeal to the citizens of the United States 
and to the citizens of the Republic of Mexico to be pa- 
tient and forbearing the one with the other, lest the 
amity which just men desire to preserve and to foster 
should be disrupted by the machinations of the evil forces 
that are now arrayed against it. We desire that wise 
counsel should displace all thoughts of violence in the 
consideration of such differences as exist, or as may be 
[293] 



APPENDIX II 



created, between our dear land of Mexico and the land 
of our refuge. Between lands linked in a common des- 
tiny by nature and by sentiment, free lands intended by 
God to help each other in harmony, mutual confidence, 
and disinterested friendship, in the fulfilment of the high 
purposes for which He has created them — peace, the 
peace of God and the Church, should prevail. 

We, as representatives of the Church which has under 
our leadership and in our persons suffered persecution 
at the hands of the Mexican Government, appeal in our 
anguish especially to all who are bearing burdens un- 
fairly placed upon them by the Mexican authorities. 
Before those who are burdened, we would give testimony 
of our abiding faith in the essential justice of the Mexi- 
can people, and our unalterable trust in the ultimate tri- 
umph of all just causes placed before the tribunal of our 
people. We, homeless shepherds whose folds are 
wrecked and ruined, and whose flocks are scattered and 
sorely beset; we who are bound in conscience to abate no 
effort till the trust be fulfilled that God gave to our care; 
we urge mutual patience and forbearance, for our trust 
in the Mexican people is absolute. And proclaiming that 
trust before men, shall we appeal in vain to the fair- 
minded moulders of American opinion that they refram 
from thoughts of violence and instruct their public in the 
ways of charity, and of peace settlement of all diffi- 
culties? We appeal especially to th'ose in the United 
States who in good faith have made our cause their own, 
reminding them that the temples of God are the hearts 
of His people and that the mission of His Church is to 
create peace and good will among men. The principle 
on which our Church is founded will insure a peace of 
[294] 

Jan If; m 



APPENDIX 11 



j ustice, for the capacity of the Mexican people to respond 
to the mission of the Church is limited only by the arti- 
ficial and temporary barriers which restrict our func- 
tions. Finally we appeal to the faithful in the United 
States and in Mexico to join us in our prayers that God 
may be pleased speedily to remove all occasions of mis- 
understanding between tliese two sovereign states so that 
the American and the Mexican peoples, each preserving 
its own sovereignty, may dwell together in perfect peace 
now and for ever. 

Francis Plancarte 

Archbishop of Linares 
Leopold Ruiz 

Archbishop of Michoacan 
Francis Orozco y Jimenez 

Archbishop of Guadalajara 



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